


Parent Trapped

by akasharpiegirl



Series: Parent Trapped [1]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Adorable Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Based on The Parent Trap (1998), CEO Pepper Potts, Canon parallels, Divorce, Eventual Happy Ending, Eventual Romance, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Heavy Angst, Implied Sexual Content, Inspired by The Parent Trap (1998), Italian Tony Stark, James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark Friendship, Kid Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Maria Stark Lives, Maria Stark's A+ Parenting, Maria Stark's Good Parenting, Marriage, Marriage Proposal, Morgan Stark Needs a Hug (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Morgan Stark-centric (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Morgan has a sister she doesn’t know about, Mutual Pining, Oh, Parallels, Parent Pepper Potts, Parent Tony Stark, Past Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Pepper Potts & Tony Stark Friendship, Pepper Potts Feels, Pepper Potts Needs a Hug, Pepperony - Freeform, Pining, Post-Divorce, Precious Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Protective Pepper Potts, Romance, Slow Burn, Slow Dancing, Summer Camp, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Tony Stark is Good With Kids, Uncle Happy Hogan, Uncle James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Wedding Planning, Weddings, a wedding doesnt happen but then another does, basically if youve ever seen the parent trap you know the plot, because I said so, christine just wants to marry Tony for his money, have i mentioned it’s an au, he is an MIT prof, hehe, i weighed the options, kinda slow burn, like four years younger than the mcu, ok look im sorry Christine has to be here, pepper potts is a single mom, she was the best fit, that would be weird, the timeline is different and tony’s just a tad younger, there’s not gonna be a subplot relationship outside of the two introduced early on, tony stark is a single dad
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-30
Updated: 2020-11-05
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:54:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 40,538
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26726248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/akasharpiegirl/pseuds/akasharpiegirl
Summary: Twelve years after him and his wife split up and a bizarre plan came to be about their twin daughters, single father and MIT professor Tony Stark finds himself taking his eldest daughter (and only one in his care) to an all-girls summer camp for the third summer in a row.While 3000+ miles across the country, single mother and successful business woman Pepper Potts unknowingly sends off the younger daughter in her care, Alayna Potts, to the same all-girls summer camp that her ex-husband sends her eldest daughter to every single year.Little do they know all of their lives are about to turn all upside down. (Or right side up?)
Relationships: Christine Everhart/Tony Stark, Happy Hogan & James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Happy Hogan & Maria Stark, Happy Hogan & Original Female Character(s), Happy Hogan & Pepper Potts, James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Original Female Character(s), James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark, Maria Stark & Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Maria Stark & Original Female Character(s), Maria Stark & Tony Stark, Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe) & Original Character (sister), Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe) & Tony Stark, Pepper Potts & James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Pepper Potts & Maria Stark, Pepper Potts & Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Pepper Potts & Original Female Character, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Tony Stark & Original Female Character(s)
Series: Parent Trapped [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1945135
Comments: 120
Kudos: 54





	1. First Day of Summer Camp

**Author's Note:**

> Hi-ho, hello! It’s the friendly neighborhood pepperony fam writer here! The Parent Trap (1998) is one of my all time favorite movies and so I got an idea: Pepperony AU. It became my passion project really fast and I really love how it’s turned out. I really hope you like it!
> 
> TW // brief mentions of sex, implied sexual content, and heavy discussions of divorce throughout the series. Christine gives off Evil Stepmother vibes in this, so I guess a warning for implied/threatened abuse. (Doesn’t ever happen, but yknow. Again, if you’ve seen the movie this is based off you know what I mean.) There are minor cases of couples arguing. Please stay safe!

**[06.07.21**

**Noon]**

**Tony:**

_‘It’s been almost twelve years since Pep and I...’_ he finds himself trying to think about when a stupid-overdramatized break up song comes on the radio as he drove along the dirt road with his twelve year old daughter, Morgan Stark, in tow. Where to? The dirt road led to a summer camp by the name of Parkington’s Summer Camp for the third time. 

He had his first summer lecture to give at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in two and a half hours, and he was cutting it close to get there… as the Cambridge located university is, at least, two hours away from this small little camp in the middle of Connecticut without traffic. It was either wake up Morgan at 5 AM to catch the bus at her school or leave the house at ten to bring her to the drop off spot at noon, risking being late… on the first day of classes for the summer semester. Which would you honestly choose if you had a daughter who absolutely despises waking up early? He couldn’t blame her though, he hated getting up early too. That’s why he always opted against teaching eight AM classes. Maria, his mother, offered to drop Morgan off at camp. But, he insisted on risking missing the start of his first lecture of the semester, just so he could share the biggest goodbye hug to his little girl that could last for eight weeks. 

He let out a soft sigh as he drove past the overhead sign and skips over the radio that played the depressing song, spotting the various cabins and outdoor activities that were interspersed around the property. 

“Dad?”, Morgan asks as she looks up from her half eaten hash brown while Tony parked in one of the visitor’s lots. 

“That’s my name, Maguna,” he looks back at her with a small smile as she takes another bite of her breakfast. 

“You gonna miss me?”, Morgan asks, unbuckling her seatbelt with her free hand. 

“Oh, absolutely! I always do. Why wouldn’t I?,” Tony answers as he gets out of his car and opens the door for her. “After all, you’re going to be away for eight weeks! That’s like—“

“Quite literally two months?”, Morgan finishes as she stands up. She follows Tony to the back of the car to fetch her bags once she throws away her food in a trash can right off the lot. 

“I’m going to miss you, kiddo,” he says as he sits her first duffle bag on the rickety concrete. “So much.” He picks up the smaller bag in the back and sets it down before closing the trunk. 

She pulls him into a hug then, “I’m going to miss you too, Dad.” 

He kisses his daughter on her forehead, which results in a giggle from Morgan due to his scruffy facial hair. “What time shall we set to discuss your weekly adventures, hm?”

“I can call you at noon on Sundays, probably,” Morgan answers as she steps away from her Dad. “I think my cabin has the second lunch rotation, but I’ll make sure.” She hikes up the giant duffle bag on her shoulder and holds onto her backpack.

He lets out a small laugh, seeing Morgan struggling to stand upright with the purple bag hanging on her shoulder. “You need help?”

“No!”

“Alright then, suit yourself. I’ll keep my schedule open this Sunday, okay? Then we can pick a better call time based on what you know if we need to,” Tony suggests. 

“Okay,” Morgan smiles. 

“Well, I love you tons and I’m gonna miss you so. Go get checked in before I start tearing up, Morgan,” he teases. 

“I love you too, Dad,” she says before walking over to the check in table. 

She’s halfway over to the table when he calls out, “Make good choices!”

Right before he gets in the car to drive off, he hears Morgan yell back: “I will!”

———

**Happy:**

Happy pulls up to Parkington’s Summer Camp with the jet lagged twelve year old daughter of Virginia ‘Pepper’ Potts, named Alayna Potts, in the back seat of the car. 

Pepper is a successful businesswoman, who runs a Fortune 500 company by the name of Potts Industries. The name was changed from Stark Industries to Potts Industries in 2009 to reflect the new family name it would be run under when the Starks completely stepped out of the public eye in the same year. 

“Lanie, you okay back there?”, he asks as he glances in the rearview mirror, spotting the preteen half asleep.

Her eyes quickly open and she yawns as she speaks up, “Yeah, I, uh… yeah.”

“Whatever you say,” Happy stifles a laugh as he puts the car in park. “We’re here, though.”

“Oh. We are?”, Alayna asks with a slight grimace. Her mother had forced her to attend summer camp across the country for something other than gymnastics camp, and it goes without saying: she did not want to be here.

“I believe so, yes,” he nods. 

She scrambles to pick up her bags that were splayed across the row as Happy steps out of the car.

He opens the door for her, and by then she has her three bags collected. 

She looks around at the scenery as three girls run past them before she looks back at Happy. 

“You got everything, Alayna?”, he asks.

“I think so,” Alayna says halfheartedly as she readjusts the bags on both of her shoulders and back.

Happy sighs, “Look, I know you don’t want to be here. But, I think your mother is right. You need to make some friends outside of the gym and school. You’re a sweet kid, Lanie. You just need to get out of your shell.”

She scrunched up her face, “Not happening, Uncle Hap. No way, no how.”

“ _ And _ ,” he sighs. “if you absolutely hate it in a week or two, you have my number and I’ll get you back home with your mom. We’ll say you caught the stomach bug or something.”

“Thank you.”

“Do you need me to walk over with you to help check you in or are you good?”, Happy inquires, pointing haphazardly to the foldable table behind her.

“I’m good,” Alayna assures.

“Well, I’ll see you in eight weeks if not earlier. Either your mom or I will get the flight plan information to you within the next week or two,” Happy informs. “Please try to have fun, okay?”

Alayna rolls her eyes, “Fine.”

There’s a brief quietness between Happy and Alayna. 

“I’m going to miss you, kid,” Happy says.

A small, genuine, smile graced her lips before she hugged him, “I’m going to miss you too, Uncle Hap.”

The duo stepped away and completed a secret handshake. Alayna waved to him afterwards before turning around toward the check in spot. 

He waited until she was speaking to an employee before calling Pepper, “Just dropped Alayna off at camp. Is there anything else you need me to do while I’m here in Connecticut?”

————

**Alayna:**

Alayna half tunes out everything the camp intern is lecturing her on as she awaits a cabin assignment.

“—and you will go with Miss Andrea to the Miller cabin. She will be your chaperone for these two months,” a college aged intern says, her voice sounds about as excited as Alayna is. The intern hands Alayna a lanyard with her name, cabin name, chaperone name and phone number, meal rotation, and group rotation. “She’s over there by that giant tree with a few of your cabin mates.” The girl points to her left as Alayna puts the flimsy lanyard around her neck.

“Thank you,” Alayna shrugs before walking over to the group of girls and Miss Andrea, who was wearing a ‘Miller Cabin’ shirt. 

Andrea smiled at the preteen when she showed up, “Hi, my name is Miss Andrea. I’m the youth leader of the Miller cabin, what’s your name?” She was way too chipper, Alayna thought. 

“Um, I’m A-Alayna Potts,” Alayna mumbles, briefly lifting her credentials up for her youth leader to see. 

“It is so nice to meet you, Alayna!”, Andrea exclaims. “And you can just set your bags down on the wall behind me, you’ll get them back later. Is it your first year here?”

“Yeah.” Alayna neatly sets her bags down on the brick wall that lined the planted tree before returning to her original spot.

“Oh that’s great! We’ve got quite a few first time campers here this year. Lucky for you, we’ve got some veterans in our cabin this year. Like, Morgan Stark over there. She’s been coming here since she was ten,” Andrea points over to a girl with dark brown hair that looked kind of like her own, but shorter, that was kicking a soccer ball back and forth between her feet. Alayna couldn’t see her face though. “I’m sure she’d love to get you acquainted if you asked.”

Alayna just nods. 

“We’re still waiting on one more from my group of sixteen and then I’ll lead all of us to where we all will be staying for a bit. You can wander around and talk to other girls if you would like,” Andrea shrugs. “And don’t worry, I’m not going to be up in your business all of the time. Just for the first few days… to make sure you’re hanging in there and all that. Then I’ll just check in on you every few hours and make sure you and your cabin mates actually are getting along and are going to sleep on time.” She laughs. 

“Um, thanks,” she gives an insincere smile before walking away. 

Alayna ends up sitting on the brick, despite both her mother’s and Happy’s statements swirling in her mind:  _ ‘Please just try to make friends!’  _ She aimlessly kicks the sand with the tiptoes of her shoes as she waits for the call. 

Her thoughts are interrupted when a soccer ball hits her feet. 

“Oh, I’m so sorry,” a girl’s voice comes from in front of her.

Alayna’s head shoots up, spotting the girl Andrea was talking about…  _ Morgan Stark was her name, right? Holy crap, we look a lot alike. Freckles, the eye color, even our noses look the same. But Morgan doesn’t even seem fazed. _ “Uh, it’s okay. Are you, uh… do you play?” She gives the ball a slight tap with her left shoe and it rolls into the arch of Morgan’s right foot.

“Oh no, I don’t,” Morgan shrugs, kicking it away from her. “I dance, not a big fan of kicking things across grass. Just bored and the room they use for dance activity doesn’t open until tomorrow afternoon. They got rid of my favorite spot to spend time outdoors this year for some weird reason. They used to have this tire swing set type deal by the lake. Reminded me of my place back home in Massachusetts. I liked to read there. Anyway, what’s your name? You new? Do you play any sports?”

“Alayna,” the younger twin speaks up. “P-Potts. And yes, I’m new this year. Gymnastics, too.”

“Stark, Morgan,” Morgan laughs. “It’s nice to meet you. This is my third year here.”

“So I’ve heard,” Alayna nods. “Miss, uh, Andrea told me.”

“Hey, you’re lucky. Miller cabin was built over this school year. It’s new,” Morgan points toward the building. “I got to stay in one of the old ones my first year and while not horrible, I was not comfortable. So if you hear anyone from Merriman cabin complaining, that’s why.”

Alayna lets out a small laugh, “Noted.”

The two shake hands, when Miss Andrea speaks up. “Miller cabin is filled! Pick up your bags, girls!”

**[9:50 PM]**

**Morgan:**

“Alrighty, you each have been placed in the individual ‘dorm’ rooms based on interests and other deciding factors by me and a few other employees here at Parkington’s,” Miss Andrea explained once the sixteen girls took their seats on the floor of the cabin common room. “If there is a problem, please let me know and we can figure out the best route to fix the issue. Do not switch dorm rooms or beds on your own. I will be doing room checks to make sure that you are all in your designated spaces. Any questions?”

“What happens if we don’t get along with our bunk mate?”, a girl spoke up.

Morgan lets out a deep sigh, as she’s heard the answer to this question God knows how many times. 

“Good question, Olivia. Usually, I will have you switch with another camper and that’ll be the end of it. But if I think that there’s a conflict that can be easily fixed or something along those lines, I might move you to what we at Parkington’s call the Friendship Cabin,” Andrea goes into a soliloquy. “There are fifteen total, to match the amount of main cabins. These are each behind each main lodging house. The Friendship Cabin is basically a two person dorm room. You and your bunk mates will have a special marking on your credentials to mark your stay at the cabin. You and the other person will live there for the remainder of camp and will have to be partnered together for all activities until you go home… unless something drastic happens. Which usually doesn’t, but would result in one or both of you to be sent home early. I’d suggest working out your differences and not ripping each other’s heads off, capiche?” 

“It’s technically  _ capisci _ ,” Morgan mumbles quietly before anyone can respond to the original question.

“And for those of you who have not met Miss Stark before, she’s our mini Italian language expert. My apologies,” Andrea raises her eyebrow at the twelve year old. “But for real, are y’all following along with what I’m saying?”

A cacophony of “yes ma’am”s went around the common room.

“Aw, now. I appreciate the sentiment but calling me  _ ma’am  _ makes me feel old. I just graduated college! Miss A, Andrea, or Miss Andrea would work just fine. Any more questions?”, Miss Andrea laughs. Nobody speaks up. “Scatter and find your rooms!”

Morgan is one of the first to get up and goes from door to door, scanning each sheet for her name. 

She finds her way over to the fourth dorm room, “Olivia Martins, Leia Spencer...”, she trails off. She spots her name and Alayna’s name as bunk mates. She looks around, seeing Alayna aimlessly walking around, waiting for the crowds die down so she can find her own name. Morgan smiles at the girl before speaking up, “Potts, you’re bunking with me!”

“I am?”, her eyes go wide. 

“Yep!”, Morgan motions for her to come over. 

Alayna smiles before dragging her things over. 


	2. Calls Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Morgan and Alayna call their homes for the first time since camp began.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Second upload of the series, yeehaw!! Hope you enjoy!

**[06.13.21**

**Noon]**

**Morgan:**

Morgan opened the door to her bunk room and climbed up on the bunk bed after taking off her sneakers that she wore for a small nature hike. She picked up her backpack that was hanging on the headboard and slid her phone out of the front pocket. 

She clicked on her Dad’s contact and waited for him to pick up, sliding the call over on speaker since she was alone in the room at the moment. 

She hears the call pick up on the other end, “Hi Dad!”

“Maguna, hi! How has your first week gone? Have you met any new friends?”, Tony greets his daughter:

“It’s gone great, actually,” Morgan confirms. “Hiking has gotten easier since last year. Found a new spot to read since they got rid of the wood swings, and spent a lot of time at the lake. Oh! And I met this sweet girl who’s my age! Her name is Alayna, she’s a gymnast. We’re bunk mates.”

Tony goes quiet.

“Dad? You still there?”, Morgan asks, nervous.

“Oh, uh... yeah, Morgan. I’m still here. Did you say...  _ A-Alayna?” _ , he finally manages to ask, his voice struggling. 

“Yes,” she says. “Why?”

“Just wanted to make sure I heard right, sorry,” he quickly apologizes. 

“That’s okay,” Morgan shrugs it off. “How’d your first week of classes go?”

“Great,” Tony answers. “Sitting in my office right now, actually. Had to finish grading because the online system MIT uses for grading went haywire on Friday and hasn’t been fixed since. I could probably fix it if I knew the issue but they won’t let me look into it, so...”

“Oof,” she sympathizes. “That sucks.”

“It’s no biggie,” he assures. “Tell me about that reading spot, kiddo.”

“It’s actually the porch of my cabin’s Friendship room,” Morgan laughs. “I’ve gotten some weird looks for sitting there when I haven’t been assigned it, but it’s quiet. I finished a 500 page novel in three days.”

“Oh, look at that! A new record for you. But, I’ve gotta ask. Why can’t you just read at the lending library?”, he returns with a laugh.

“It’s not all that quiet, Dad,” she admits. 

“Oh,” he lets out a small sigh. 

————

**Alayna:**

Alayna wraps a towel around her swimsuit clad body and makes her way back to her cabin. She wipes her feet off on the welcome mat and veers to the right as she walks inside, finding her cabin room. 

Using her free hand, she opens the door to see her bunk mate in the room and on the phone. She gives a slight wave, unintentionally listening in to the conversation. 

Morgan laughs, “Dad, no! It’s not like that!”

Her eyes widen when Morgan says ‘Dad’. It’s not like she thought nobody had a Dad because she didn’t, but for some reason it always took her for a shock. And often, made Alayna jealous. She had crappy ‘friends’ at the gym that bragged about having a father, so that might be why.  _ I hope Morgan isn’t like that.  _

Alayna hasn’t managed to make her presence known to Morgan yet, despite the wave, and so she continues to mindlessly grab her toiletries and a change of clothes from under her bed… trying not to let her jealousy ruin the friendship that had started to form with this girl from Massachusetts. 

“Wait,” Morgan interrupts her father, her eyes finding Alayna. “Hey, Alayna. Do you need me to put this off of speaker or are you about to leave?”

Alayna picks up her container of shampoo before answering, “U-Uh… no. I’m about to take a shower because I was, uh, at the lake. Trying to, you know, get clean before lunch so I don’t smell like lake water. You can keep talking to your  _ D-Dad _ if you want to. I don’t mind.” She haphazardly points in the direction of the lake before quickly fleeing to their bathroom.

She can hear an “Um, okay—”, followed by a brief pause and then, “—well, how's Nonna doing?” from outside of the bathroom as soon as she closes the door. She can’t hear Morgan’s Dad’s response.

After her shower, Morgan is gone. Alayna checks the time, noticing it’s fifteen minutes before lunch. 

She calls her Mom, knowing she’s probably awake now… it’s a weekend and she rarely works on those days. 

While Alayna awaits her call’s fate, she lays down on her bed for the first time since 7:30 this morning.

The call picks up and Pepper is the first to speak, “Good morning, sweetheart! How's my girl doing? How has the first week treated you?”

Alayna smiles at the sound of her Mom’s voice. She had missed it  _ so _ much. 

“Hi, Mama! I miss you!”, Alayna says. 

“I miss you too, baby,” Pepper agrees. 

“I’m doing okay, I guess. This camp has a learning curve to it compared to Woodward, but I kinda like it,” she admits. 

“See, I told you that you would love it. I didn’t like it my first week and fell in love with it once I got used to it,” Pepper teases. Her humorous tone drops. “Lanie, sweetheart. Have you met any new people? Friends?”

“Yeah… there’s this one girl I’m bunk mates with, who’s kind of nice,” she shrugs, despite knowing her mother can’t see her.

“What’s her name, hm?”

“Morgan,” Alayna states.

Pepper goes quiet. 

“Mama?”, Alayna panics. “Are you okay? Mama?”

“Sorry, honey. I got, uh, distracted… remembered a deadline,” Pepper speaks up. Her voice sounded shaky. “Did you say, um,  _ Morgan _ ?”

“Yeah,” Alayna confirms. “Why?”

“Just wasn’t sure if I heard right, I’m sorry,” Pepper’s voice goes soft. 

“It’s okay,” Alayna calms down. “I—“

The door to their room opens, distracting her, and Morgan enters, “Sorry, I forgot something.”

“It’s okay, Morgan,” Alayna shrugs. 

Morgan climbs up the side of her bed and scours her backpack for something.

“Anyway, uh, Mom! I joined a dance and tumbling club here. I think it could help my floor routines and stuff. Plus, you know, meeting people,” Alayna says.

Morgan almost falls off the bunk bed as Pepper responds to Alayna.

“Oh my God! Morgan, are you okay?”, Alayna’s eyes widened at the situation.

“Y-Yeah, I’m sorry… I just lost my footing for a sec, that’s… that’s all,” Morgan jumps down from the bed with a water bottle in her hands. “Sorry for interrupting your chat with your Mom _. _ I’m gonna go get in line for, uh, lunch.” She runs out of the room, leaving Alayna dumbfounded. 

  
  


**[06.17.21**

**3:26 PM]**

**Olivia Martins:**

“I’ll be there in a sec. Meet you at the gym at 3:30?”, Olivia asks Morgan as she steps on the porch of their cabin.

“Sure,” Morgan nods before taking off.

Olivia walks into the common area and opens the door to her room, spotting Alayna staring up at the top of her bunk. She appeared to be lost in thought.

“Hey,” Olivia grabs her attention from the doorway once she grabs her jazz shoes. “Earth to Alayna?”

“Oh!”, Alayna sits up at the sudden interaction and meets eyes with her roommate. “Hi, sorry.”

“No, it’s okay,” Olivia gives a small smile at her. “Me and a few of our cabinmates are going to the gym to improv it out with Miss Larkin or tumble before dinner. You wanna come?” She haphazardly points in the direction of the gym.

Alayna gives a small smile in return, “Uh, sure.” She swings her legs over the side of the bed and stands up. “Who’s all going?”

“Me, Dani, Katelyn, Jenna, and Morgan—“

“Oh. Morgan?”, Alayna asks, falling back down into a seated position on the bed. 

“Yeah, why?”, Olivia inquires. She knew they weren’t as talkative with each other in the last few days and when they were it was slightly unfriendly, but this was new. 

The younger of the two shakes her head, “Nevermind. Thank you for the offer, though. See you at dinner?”

“Oh, um, sure,” Olivia mumbles before walking out, deciding against asking her whatever the heck that was about. 

She catches up with Morgan and the other girls in their cabin, Morgan trailing slightly behind the others. “Hey, can I ask you something?”

“Yeah, what’s up?”, Morgan asks as she slows her pace to talk with Olivia.

“You and Alayna good?”, she asks. “Invited her to come with us and she got all squirmy when I said you were going.”

“Oh, yeah. Um, I don’t know what happened,” Morgan admits. “She freaked out on Sunday and when I asked her about it she got all defensive. I’m not sure what I did, but apparently I did something.”

“Have you talked to Miss A?”

Morgan shakes her head as they walk into the gym. “She’d send us to the friendship cabin if I did. Don’t want to make her more miserable than she already is sharing a bunk with me… if she doesn’t want to be my friend, that’s okay.”

Olivia frowns, “If you say so, Stark.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading!
> 
> Honestly, this is my least favorite part of the series, but I hope it was entertaining for you all-the-while. But, hey! Tony and Pepper both have mini mental breakdowns when they hear their other daughter’s names! Probably my favorite part of this chapter, to be honest. What was yours? Tell me in the comments! 
> 
> Love you all, stay safe!


	3. The One Where They Plan A Twin Switch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Morgan and Alayna get sent to the Miller friendship cabin. What could possibly go wrong? (Or right?)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, early chapter!! I was just really excited to drop this one this week! Depending on how the rest of my writing goes, you might get another on Friday as planned. Almost done writing the whole series!

**[06.18.21**

**4:30 PM]**

**Miss. Andrea:**

“Miss A, can I talk to you?”, Olivia Martins calls over the Miller cabin leader that stood near the canoe station. 

“Of course! What’s up, Martins?”, Andrea asked, turning toward the camper. She makes it closer to her.

“You know Alayna and Morgan, right?”

“Absolutely,” Andrea says. “Are they A-Okay?”

“I'm not sure,” Olivia answers. “They were really close the first week, and now they don’t even talk. It’s weird. I asked Morgan about it and she shrugged it off, but she seems kinda hurt… and I know it’s probably mean of me to tell you that, but they were starting to become really good friends. At least from what I could see. It’s kinda sad to see it dissipate.”

“What do you mean they don’t even talk?”

“They talked each other’s ears off during the first week. Then Sunday hit,” Olivia pauses, snapping her fingers. “And it’s like neither exist to each other anymore. They don’t sit together at meals, they don’t hang around each other during camp activities… they occasionally talk but it’s really hostile. It reminds me a lot of how my younger sisters try to talk to each other after a fight, and I don’t even think Alayna and Morgan are related… which is just weird.”

“Honestly, if it weren’t for their credentials and their paperwork saying otherwise, I wouldn’t know the difference between them. They look a lot alike… and yeah, they probably got in a teensy argument or something,” Andrea mumbled before speaking up. “I’ll talk to them, okay? Thank you for letting me know.”

————

“Alright, break,” Andrea says at the end of her evening chat with the cabin. “Stark, Potts, hang back a sec. I need to speak with both of you.”

The two girls stand up from opposite ends of the common room and meet up with Andrea. Morgan shoots Alayna a weird look.

“A little birdie told me you two weren’t getting along anymore. What’s that about, hm?”, she asks the unknowing twins.

“Well, she freaked when I—“, Morgan tries to say, but Alayna prevents her from finishing her sentence.

“Morgan said—“

“Nope,” Andrea shakes her head, interrupting Alayna. “I’m giving you two a chance to speak by yourself and fix this. If you can’t, I’m going to have to send you both to the Miller Friendship Cabin.”

Morgan lifts up her arms in surrender and she rolls her eyes, “Well, I’m not willing to tell her. She hurt my feelings. Friendship Cabin, it is then.” Her voice was as cold as ice.

“ _I_ hurt your feelings?”, Alayna’s eyes widened. “You’re the one who—“

“In that case, pack your stuff,” Andrea sighs. “Fifteen minutes max before I come in to help you both pack. Let me know when you’re ready to move in if you’re done before. Give me your credentials so I can mark them.”

Morgan lets out an exasperated sigh just after she gives the counselor her credentials and walks to her now-old cabin room, “Great!” 

Alayna rolls her eyes as she gives Andrea her lanyard.

“You put this on yourself,” Andrea calls over to the girls. “Don’t blame me.”

**[06.19.21**

**12:31 AM]**

**Morgan:**

Morgan tosses over on her left side, facing the wall of her new cabin, as she attempts to fall asleep. 

She’s half asleep when she hears _crying_ come from Alayna’s side of the room. Morgan stays still, hoping it’ll just stop. But it doesn’t, and the sound of her crying becomes more frequent. Morgan can tell she’s trying to be as quiet as possible. 

“Alayna?”, Morgan breaks the silent treatment, speaking in a quiet and comforting tone. “You okay?” She rolls back over onto her right side, trying to see how far away Alayna’s side of the room was from hers.

Alayna stifles her crying.

“Do you want to talk about whatever it is that’s bothering you?”, Morgan asks, turning on her reading light to illuminate her own side of the room. 

“No.”

“You sure?”, Morgan asks as she stands up, holding her reading light in one hand. She bends down at the end of her bed, finding her stash of snacks. She grabs two packs of fruit snacks shaped like smiley faces that Tony had bought for her to take with her. 

“N-No,” Alayna admits. 

“What’s wrong?”, Morgan asks, pulling up a chair next to Alayna’s bed. She sits down. 

“This is, uh, the longest I’ve ever been away from my Mom,” she sighs, wiping tears away from her cheeks. Alayna flips on the light switch to the lowest setting, causing Morgan to turn off her reading light. Alayna’s nose was red, there were blotchy spots on her face, and her eyes looked utterly exhausted. “It’s really, really hard. One week was hard at gymnastics camp. Two months? Whole other ballgame.”

“Oh…”, Morgan mumbles. “I’ve been there. It’s not fun. I barely made it through my first summer here.”

“Really?”, the younger twin asks, blinking back tears.

“It was hard,” Morgan admits, opening a pack of fruit snacks. “My counselor was in the cabin room next to me and she heard me panicking about a week and a half in because I missed my Dad. You know, since thin walls exist. There were three girls originally in my room and I was left alone that night for the first time because the two got sent to the Friendship Cabin that day. She sat in my room and talked to me until I fell asleep. Let me tell her about my family. She told me to take it day by day and if it gets unbearably worse, she’d call home for me.” She picks up a watermelon flavored gummy and eats it.

“That’s sweet. What was her, uh… her name?”, Alayna asks, sitting up. She spots the unopened bag of fruit snacks. “And, are those fruit snacks? Can I… can I have some? But only if they don’t have strawberry flavoring.” Morgan shoots her an amused smile. “I’m allergic to strawberries... I know, it’s depressing.” She lets out an embarrassed laugh. 

“No way, me too… I found out during a school Christmas party. Had to go to the hospital for it and my Dad had to leave work because of it. ‘Twas not fun,” Morgan says with a small frown, tossing Alayna the unopened bag of snacks. “And her name was Taylor. I think she works on film crew now. She was studying film production in college when I met her. Needed the volunteer hours to graduate, you know.”

“That’s so odd,” Alayna says. “A-About us both being allergic.” She opens the snack bag. “I’m sorry you found out during school. That was probably awful.”

“Do you want to tell me about your family?”, Morgan asks, picking up another fruit smiley. 

“Uh…”, Alayna mumbled. “Yeah, okay… sure. It’s just me, my mom, and my uncle. Well, he’s not really my uncle, but I call him that. I have family here in Connecticut and over in New York but I rarely see them… usually just for the holidays and weddings and all that. I have biological uncles and aunts who have kids... they’re my mom’s nephews and nieces. So, my cousins. One’s four years old, his name is Carter. Then Anna, who’s six. Then my grandma and my grandfather… who is Mom’s stepdad. Uh, Mom never talks about my Dad. The only reason I know they’re divorced is because Happy told me. My ‘friends’ at gym always brag about having a Dad when I’m around, so… that’s why I freaked and stopped talking to you. It seems that the kids at my gym never give up a chance to brag about having a ‘happy family’ or a cool dad when I’m around. I thought you were going to talk about yours all the time and stuff.”

“Same with the uncle thing,” Morgan says. “And I’m sorry about your Dad. If you would have told me you were scared of that, I would’ve been cautious not to. ‘Cause believe me, I get why you would be uncomfortable.”

“My Mama, she’s busy but she always makes time for me. She comes to all of my gymnastics meets and all that other fun stuff. She sent me here because I have trouble making friends. Thought meeting people not from my online school or gym in California would be a little easier. Apparently she used to come here when she was a teen,” Alayna explains. “She’s from a suburb of New Haven.”

“Were you born in California?”

She nods as she takes a bite of her blue raspberry snack. “Malibu.”

“I was born there too… Malibu and all,” Morgan says, with a slight laugh in her voice. “Moved to Massachusetts when I was a baby with my Dad. My Nonna moved in with us when I was two… up from New York City.”

“Boston?”

“About thirty minutes from Boston, actually,” Morgan answers. 

“Does it snow there?”, Alayna’s voice perks up.

“Sometimes,” the eldest nods. “We got a foot of snowfall last winter a couple days after my birthday.”

“That’s so weird! We’re both allergic to strawberries and we’re both from Malibu, California,” Alayna laughs. “Anyway, my ‘uncle’ works for my Mom. He drives me to co-op and to gymnastics practice and wherever else when my mom can’t. Accompanied me on my flight here and dropped me off. Made a deal with me that if I absolutely hated it here, he’d cover for me and say I got the stomach bug or something if I came home early.”

Morgan snickers, “He seems nice.”

“He used to be the asset manager at my Mom’s work. Head of security now, I think. He hangs around at our house a lot. He’s cool… I call him Happy, and he absolutely hated the misnomer at first,” Alayna finishes. “Because he’s grumpy a lot.”

“What does your Mom do?”, Morgan asks.

“CEO, Potts Industries,” Alayna answers hesitantly. 

“I should’ve known that,” Morgan mutters with a small smile. “California, Potts… makes complete sense. I didn’t even know she had a daughter?”

“Not many people do,” Alayna shrugs. “You would be shocked how many people don’t bat an eye when your Mom’s company sponsors all the gymnastics meets you compete in and everything else you take part in. Either nobody knows or there’s an undercover mission where almost everyone knows but they’ve decided to have human decency and not ever mention it.”

“Ah.”

“What does yours do?”, Alayna continues.

“My mom?”, Morgan asks with wide eyes. 

Alayna hums.

“I only have a Dad,” Morgan shrugs. “It is what it is. Daddy never talks about my Mama, though. Similarly to you, the only reason I know they divorced is because my Nonna constantly says that if she could still boss him around, my mom and my dad would still be together... It’s kind of like he’s treating it as if she never existed, you know?”

“Oh, yeah. I know…”, Alayna nods. “I’m sorry. What does your Dad do?”

“He was an engineer for some big company before he became my Dad. He’s a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology now. I think he misses being an actual engineer, but I know he likes teaching,” Morgan answers. “He’s an alumni of MIT actually, one of their top students so I’ve heard.” 

“My Mom went to Harvard for business,” Alayna states. “Is it just you, your Dad, and your uh, Nonna?”

“Yeah,” Morgan says. “Human wise. I have a cat, too.”

“Aw, I love cats! My Mama won’t let me have one,” Alayna exclaims. “What’s your cat’s name?”

“Calypso. She’s a calico. My Dad let me pick her out at the shelter once he and my Nonna finally had enough of my begging,” Morgan laughs. 

“You keep saying that. What does that mean?”

“Nonna?”, Morgan asks:

Alayna hums. 

“Nonna is Italian for Grandmother,” she clarifies. 

“What are your Dad and grandma like?”, Alayna inquires.

“From first glance, you’d think my Dad is this serious guy who’s never laughed in his life,” Morgan starts. “Which is not true at all.”

“Yeah?”

“He’s the biggest goofball and softie you could ever meet. He’s sarcastic, though… and he knows how to be serious when he has to be. Apparently his students call him Iron Man because of how serious he is in his lectures,” Morgan giggles. “I’m not sure if that’s true or not, but I’ll take his word for it.”

“Like the comic book hero?”, Alayna muses. 

Morgan hums. “He’s got a goatee that makes me laugh every time he kisses my forehead or cheek. ...and he gives the best hugs! We go on camping trips a lot, apparently he used to go on them with my uncle Rhodey in college. My Dad's also the driving force behind why I, a twelve year old girl, like old rock and other types of _old_ music.” She uses air quotes when she says ‘old’. “I’m not the best at math either, but he tutors me in it. Oh, and he can’t cook! Like at all! He tries, but it’s not going well. Various types of pastas, waffles, and ramen noodles are about all he knows how to make.” There’s a pause. “He’s like my best friend.”

Alayna’s facial expression goes blank for a second but before Morgan can ask why, she comes back with, “What bands?” 

“Uh… Queen, The Beatles... You know, stuff like that,” Morgan answers. “One of the only things he’s said about Mom is that she’d completely disapprove of me listening to half of those songs. Granted, I know he keeps the more explicit ones away from my ears.”

Alayna laughs. 

“He also gave me the nickname ‘Maguna’ when I was a baby before I could say my name right,” Morgan continues. “It’s never left after all of these years. I only like it when he, Nonna, and Rhodey call me that… it’s reserved for them. Everyone else calls me ‘Mo’ or ‘M’.”

“No way! My Mom and Happy call me ‘Lanie’ for a similar reason,” Alayna says. “Tried to say Alayna when I was like 11 months old… ended up saying Lanie instead. Couldn’t say my ‘uh’s yet, but could say my ‘e’s at that point, apparently. Lanie is reserved for them, also. My biological nephews and nieces can, too. Aly’s fine for everyone else.” She picks up a blonde haired and hazel eyed doll dressed in a dark blue nightgown with ‘live in harmony’ embroidered in yellow, that laid on her bed. “Story behind why I have this doll too. Her name’s Lanie apparently.”

“That’s so cute,” Morgan smiles. “I have a few of those dolls myself, too. Courtney’s my favorite. Got her for Christmas this past year! She’s laying on my bed at home though. I thought that her curls would get ruined if I packed her.”

There was a quick minute of silence before someone spoke up.

“My Nonna is one of the sweetest humans I know,” Morgan continues. “Her name’s Maria. Blonde hair with gray streaks. She dyed the gray back to blonde for a while and eventually stopped. She also got me into dance, actually. ‘Cause she took me to see a production of the Boston Ballet company performing the Cinderella ballet when I was three and I fell in love with it! I’m told that my entire face lit up when the soloist performed the fairy godmother variation. Nonna comes to all of my shows and competitions with my Dad... thinks I could make it professionally in ballet and modern if I weren’t so interested in engineering. She also makes the absolute best chicken parm. Says she’s going to pass the recipe down to me once I start learning how to cook. Nonna also has the most beautiful singing voice and she taught me how to play piano.”

“Your family sounds wonderful, Morgan,” Alayna smiles. 

“So does yours.”

“Hey, I don’t mean to get in your business… but do you by chance have a photo of your family?”, Alayna asks. 

“Uh, yeah. Hold on,” Morgan says, rolling the chair over to her windowsill. She grabs her phone and rolls back over to Alayna’s side of the room. Morgan pulls up a family photo of the three outside of their home and Calypso walking in the background from her camera roll and shows it to Alayna. It had been taken by Rhodey.

Alayna stares at it with wide eyes.

“What’s wrong?”

“I, uh—“ she gets up.

“Where are you going?!”, Morgan exclaims.

Alayna rummages through one of her bags before returning with a crumpled photo in her hands. “I have a… um, a photo of my Dad. And, well,” she says as she hands Morgan the photo.

A photo that had been ripped in half of Morgan’s Dad stares back at her and she looks at it in shock, “That’s _my_ Dad! And, wait… I recognize that background.” She stands up. “Hang on.” She finds her backpack and pulls out a folded ripped photo of her Mother from the front pocket. Morgan always thought her Mom looked like the famous Pepper Potts, but she never put two and two together. 

“My Nonna gave me this photo of my Mom when I was eight.” She sits on the side of Alayna’s bed this time. “I-Is this your Mom?”

“Oh my God,” Alayna unfolds the photo and looks at it. “Yeah, t-that's her.”

“T-That’s my Mom too,” Morgan baffles. “When’s your birthday?”

“T-Thirteen on New Year’s Eve,” Alayna says in a shocked tone. “December 31st, 2008.”

“No way,” Morgan baffles. “M-Me too. I thought we looked alike, but it never… oh my gosh.”

“So if your Dad is my Dad—,” Alayna lets out a breath she didn’t know she was holding in.

“And if your Mom is my Mom,” Morgan pauses, there’s wonder in her voice. “And both of our birthdays are on New Year’s Eve… we’re sisters.”

“Better than sisters! We’re twins, Morgan!”

The two hug each other tight. 

“No wonder why my Dad froze up...,” Morgan wonders aloud when the two separate. “...when I said I made friends with an Alayna.”

“Same here,” Alayna says quietly. “My mom had a little moment when I mentioned that I befriended a Morgan.”

[7:32 AM]

Alayna:

“I just got a crazy genius idea!”, Alayna shot up out of her bed at 7:30 AM once the camp wide morning bell rang and the daily morning announcement was aired. “I _dreamt_ about it, Morgan. It felt so real.”

Morgan yawns, rolling over, “Huh? What is it?” She wipes her eyes with the back of her hand. 

“We switched places… in the dream,” Alayna states, she begins pacing around the cabin. “What if we actually did it? Like after camp. I go to Massachusetts as you, so I can meet Dad. You go to California as me, so you can meet Mom.”

“Like that ridiculous movie from the 90s with Lindsay Lohan and Elaine Hendrix?”

“I actually was never allowed to watch that,” Alayna mumbles. She laughs then and she speaks with sarcasm, “Wonder why.”

“Oh, I haven’t seen it before either. My elementary school played it in fifth grade to teach what a plot is and because it was rated PG, I had to get a note signed by my Dad saying if he was okay with me watching it or not. Only permission slip that he ever signed ‘no’ on. Makes sense now,” Morgan says, sitting up. “I didn’t get two easy days off because of that. Had to work on worksheets both days while the other kids got to chill and eat popcorn. _Boring_! Granted, for some reason the movie without sound was playing on the monitor in the room I was in for those few hours and I watched bits and pieces of it. Seemed like a good movie from what I could see.”

“But what if it could really work, Mo?”, Alayna prods. “We’d both get to meet our other parents and eventually they’d have to meet up to switch us back… because both of them finding out our identities is inevitable. Wouldn’t it be great if we could get them back together?”

“I mean it would be great,” Morgan nods. “But it seems really hard to pull off. Wouldn’t one of our parents be able to tell if it was their kid with them or not? And I’m notoriously bad at lying. Either that, or my Dad is just great at spotting them.”

“We’re identical twins,” Alayna says. “The only things we’ve got to change is my hair, our voices need a little coaching, and switch wardrobes. And of course, learn the other stuff like what our houses look like… what we usually act like at home and stuff. I’d have to learn basic Italian phrases and my voice is a little higher than yours. Oh, and I can teach you how to lie well. It’s really not that hard. But other than that…”

“Wouldn’t Mom be concerned if _you_ came back with shorter hair?”

“No, actually. She doesn’t care what I do with it as long as it doesn’t look choppy, greasy, and can be put up in a ponytail for gymnastics,” Alayna shrugs. “It’ll grow back.”

“That’s funny, honestly,” Morgan giggles as she stands up. “You really think this could work?”

“Yes!” 

“Then it’s settled. Training starts at lunch,” Morgan smiles at her newfound sister. “We’ve got six and a half weeks to perfect each other’s mannerisms. I think that’s good.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!! Hope you all enjoy! If you do, please leave kudos if you haven’t already, leave a lil’ comment, or share with your friends. (Bookmarks are kinda cool too.) What was your favorite part of this chapter? 
> 
> Chat with me on my socials!  
> Twitter: aoskayla  
> Tumblr: akasharpiegirl 
> 
> Love you all, stay safe!


	4. Long Trips and an Evil Queen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The parent trap officially begins and Alayna meets the evil queen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey!! It’s October 11! ...or as many of you hopefully know, it’s Hallie’s and Annie’s birthday in the 90s version of the movie that this fic’s based off of. In honor of such an occasion, I am dropping two chapters today! This is the first of the day. 
> 
> *i feel the need to note that my description of one house in particular is completely inaccurate and I realized it after I finished writing this chapter. But, I am one lazy person, so... I didn’t really do anything about it. Don’t come for me for it. I tried my best when I did care. 
> 
> Other than that, I am really grateful that all of you are still interested in my work! Thank you for reading!

**[08.01.21**

**5:30 PM]**

**Alayna:**

Alayna slides into the left seat at the Miller cabin Friendship table with a tray full of food.

“Let’s review, shall we?”, Morgan says, pulling up her notes app on her phone.

Alayna hums.

“Where is my room located? Dad’s? Nonna’s?”, Morgan asks. “Guest room?”

“Yours is… the second floor, right behind the stairs when you are on the landing. The bathroom entrance is in front of the stairs,” Alayna recalls. “Dad’s is on the right side as you enter on the stairs, closest to you. Nonna’s is next to his. Guest room is on the first floor, the first door to the right of the foyer when you enter from the front.”

“Yes!”, Morgan exclaims. “Yours is on the second floor, if you enter from the living room entrance. Third if you count the garage turned into a partial practice gym. And then, it’s to the right when you get upstairs. Only other door on that wall leads to the closet until you turn the corner, so…”

“What about Mama’s?”, Alayna asks.

“Down the hall, past your room. Left side of the hallway, first door. There’s a bathroom down that hall too.”

“Exactly right,” Alayna confirms before taking a bite of her ham and cheese sandwich. “Name of my gymnastics club? School?”

“Airborne Twisters,” Morgan recalls. “And, uh, California Virtual, right?”

“Mhm. Co-op’s at Malibu Prep,” the younger twin hums. “Um… I don’t remember.” 

Morgan lets out a laugh and looks down at her shirt, “The name’s right there.”

“Center Stage Dance Company?”, Alayna raises a brow as she inquires. “I want to say something funny about their lack of creativity, but my gym’s no better.”

Morgan nods with an amused smile.

“...and you go to Green Tree Middle. It’s public. You’re trying to get into a STEM magnet school when you pass eighth grade,” Alayna finishes.

Morgan nods, “You’re a level 9 gymnast, your coach’s name is Maggie Kochenco. There are fifteen other girls in your level at your gym club. And you’re just coming back after an injury that healed before camp, so I shouldn’t worry if I’m having issues following along in pre-season practices. You know, just in case we stay switched for a bit longer than expected.”

“You were in the junior company team last season. Lyrical, jazz, ballet, and tap last year. Technique twice a month,” Alayna recalls what she could remember about Morgan’s dance team. “Your coaches are named Saige Kingsley and Julianna Hall. Saige teaches lyrical, ballet, and technique. Julie teaches jazz and tap. Eight other girls in your group last year. You have a six day long intensive starting next week on Monday, company team tryouts on Saturday.”

“If we stay switched for too long, my spot on that team relies on you… no pressure,” Morgan says haphazardly.

“You do realize saying ‘no pressure’ does the exact opposite of what your actually saying, right?”, Alayna’s eyes widened. 

**[08.02.21**

**1:12 AM]**

**Morgan:**

Morgan looks over at Alayna. It was one in the morning and neither of the girls could sleep. “Are you sure we want to do this?”

“Yeah, I do,” Alayna rolls onto her stomach and tries to look at her sister in the dark. “You?”

“Yeah… I’m just nervous. What if Mom doesn’t like me or something?”

“What?! Of course she’ll like you!”, Alayna exclaims. “Don’t you worry.”

“Can I ask you something?”, the eldest daughter speaks up. 

Alayna hums.

“Has Mom ever dated again after Dad?”

“Not that I know of,” Alayna thinks aloud. “She always says how she’s not interested in relationships, so I assume not. What about Dad?”

“Oh God, no,” Morgan scrunches up her face. “He hasn’t dated since, at least not since I was old enough to remember… let alone thought of marrying again. He likes to say me and his mom are the only girls in his life.”

“That’s cute,” Alayna smiles. “Try to get some sleep, okay? We’ve got a big day tomorrow and it starts at 7:30.”

“Fine,” Morgan grumbles before burying her face into the low quality pillow.

**[12:14 PM]**

**Alayna:**

“Morgan Stark, your grownup is here to pick you up!”, one of the counselors yells into a megaphone as the twins say their goodbyes shortly after they took part in a giant end-of-camp photo.

Alayna hugs Morgan before letting go, “It’s showtime.”

“Remember, you’re going to ask Dad what happened between him and Mom,” Morgan says.

“And you’re going to ask how they met and fell in love,” Alayna finishes. 

“Morgan Stark, get a move on unless you want to find your grownup in the overflow parking!”, the same counselor yells.

The two hug again for a brief moment. “Give Dad a hug and a kiss for me, okay?”, Morgan asks.

“Same for Mom,” Alayna says before waving to her sister and finding _her_ Dad’s car in the pickup lane.

“Oh gosh, this is really happening,” Alayna mumbles to herself as she drags Morgan’s bags over to Tony’s car. 

She sees the driver’s door open as she makes it to the trunk and it honestly caught her off guard to see her own Dad, standing in front of her for the first time in God knows how long. He was shorter than she imagined... dawned in a black button up dress shirt, jeans, and sunglasses were on his face. His goatee had speckles of gray, along with portions of gray interspersed in his hair. Morgan was right, if you didn’t know the guy, it would be hard to believe he was the least bit laid back. _And she definitely, unfortunately, didn’t know the guy just yet._

“There’s my sweet Maguna!”, he exclaims as he stands in front of her with open arms.

“Dad!”, Alayna exclaims just before she hugs onto him. She didn’t realize tears had brimmed her eyes. It felt like a dream, and she prayed it wouldn’t end as soon as the hug ended.

“Did you miss me?”, he asks before kissing her forehead.

“You really have no idea, Dad,” Alayna giggles before stepping away.

“Oh, aw! You did miss me,” Tony sympathetically says, wiping the tears away on her cheeks with the back of his hand. “Well, I missed you too, Morgan. So the feeling is mutual. Lets get your bags in the trunk and then I’m taking you to my work for about an hour or two. Got a lecture that I need to attend to and you can just sit in my office until it’s over. Then, we can go home, reunite with Nonna and Calypso, and lastly, I have someone new I want you to meet. Sound good?”

“Mhm,” Alayna hums. 

“Are you hungry?”

Alayna shrugs.

“Well, we’ve got a two hour ride to campus. If you get hungry between now and then and see anything that stands out, let me know,” Tony says.

Alayna turns around as Tony is putting her things in the back of the car, and waves to Morgan with her left hand. She curls her pinky and ring finger, forming a fingers crossed symbol. 

Morgan smiles at her sister from afar, mirroring the symbol before turning around as she tries not to blow their cover. 

“Everything’s good to go over here,” Tony grabs Alayna’s attention. “Ready to go?”

Alayna turns around, nodding. 

She gets in the second row of the car and buckles in the right seat as Tony walks around to the driver’s seat.

It was quiet at first, until Tony speaks up, “You alright, kiddo? You usually have tons to say about camp.” He looks in the rearview mirror at Alayna for a moment once he approaches a red light.

“Oh, uh, yeah,” Alayna looks up from Morgan’s phone. She really felt her anxiety kicking in. _Don’t freak out, Alayna._ “I was just talking to a friend I made at camp… she’s flying back home in about an hour. Sorry.”

“It’s alright,” Tony says, looking back at the road ahead of him. “Where’s your friend from?”

“Northern California,” Alayna lies. “Somewhere around Napa.”

“Oh, wow! You know, California is a beautiful place. I should take you back there sometime,” Tony wonders aloud. “This the girl you were bunking with?”

“Yeah…”

“What was her name again?”, Tony inquires, she can tell he’s a little nervous. 

“Alayna Merriman,” Alayna answers with a fake last name and she sees the relief settle over him. “We got sent to the Friendship Cabin together in the second week because we got into a big stupid fight the first Sunday. You know, shortly after you and I hung up.”

“Oh, wow. Out of your three years there, it finally happened! Did being stuck in a room with her actually help like they say it does?”, Tony tries not to laugh. “Considering the fact you’re right here and you said she was on her way home, I can l sleep peacefully knowing you two didn’t kill each other.”

“I guess…”, Alayna shrugs. “We’re friends again now, so I suppose it worked.”

“How quick was the turnaround?”

“For me and her? Once we moved in? Not even twelve hours,” Alayna answers. “She couldn’t fall asleep because she had never been away from her Mom for longer than a week and was starting to think she couldn’t make it the rest of camp.”

“Aw, like you were your first summer,” Tony says. 

“Wait, you knew? ...I didn’t know you knew about that,” Alayna’s mouth falls agape. Morgan must have not either, or failed to mention it.

“Your counselor called me one day and gave me a heads up that I might need to pick you up early,” Tony recalls. “It made me kinda happy to know that you weren’t entirely ecstatic to be away from your old man for that long.”

“Oh…”, Alayna mumbles.

“I’m glad you helped your friend through her homesickness, though.”

————

**Morgan:**

“Alayna Potts!”, the same counselor from before calls out about ten minutes after ‘Morgan’ left camp. 

Morgan briefly crosses her fingers behind her back before walking over to the rental car.

“Lanie! You made it the whole eight weeks,” Happy says humorously as he gets out. “I’m proud of you, kid.” He spots her setting her bags down. 

“Thanks, Uncle Hap,” Morgan lets out a small laugh as she hugs him. 

“So, did you come out of your shell while you were gone and meet some new people or did you just say that you did to appease your mother?”, Happy jokes as he puts the bags away.

“I actually did meet some people,” Morgan states.

“That’s wonderful,” he says before making an odd face. “Hey, you cut your hair!”

“Oh, uh, yeah. It got too hot,” Morgan answers. “Do you think Mom will be mad?”

“Not a chance. It’ll grow back in a few months,” Happy shakes his head. “You ready to head on out? We’ll be back in California around three PM pacific time.”

Morgan hums.

  
  


**[3:32 PM EST]**

**Alayna:**

  
  


Alayna laid on the couch in her Dad’s office after finishing her Subway sandwich as she awaited his Monday lecture class to end. She mooched off of MIT’s WiFi to watch a few episodes of The Babysitters Club on Netflix with her earbuds in while she waited. 

As the current episode fades to the credits and Netflix brings up the ‘are you still watching’ screen, she hears Tony say from the main classroom: “Oh, look at that. 3:35. We’re out of time. In that case, the questions over the last section in the chapter exam on Wednesday will be extra credit. Kudos to you if you correctly answer any of them! I’ll make sure to go over it on Friday during the Zoom call so you are at least prepared for the final in a week and a half. Reminder, I have virtual office hours from 10 AM to noon tomorrow and 1 PM to 3 PM on Thursday.” There’s a pause. “Also, if you were one of the slackers that turned in your assignments between 11:50 and 11:59 PM last night, I won’t get your grades back to you for a bit. Just how it goes. Shoot me an email if you need to set up a quick call or anything. If you cannot make it to the exam on Wednesday, see me before you leave today so we can discuss alternatives. Make decent choices, alright?”

Alayna turns off Netflix then, knowing she’ll be able to go home soon. She sets the phone down and looks at the framed photograph of her Dad holding a four year old Morgan in his arms. She was dressed in a cutesy snowman dance costume and black tap shoes with a tiny bouquet of flowers in the crook of her left elbow. They both looked so happy. 

Tony opens his office door—distracting Alayna—and sighs before walking over to his desk. “I’ll be ready to head out in about five minutes, Ma—“

“Professor Stark?”, one of Tony’s students peeks their head into his office.

“Mister Parker!”, Tony exclaims. “What do you need from me? Are you not going to be here for the exam or something?”

“Uh, yeah…”, the student mumbles before speaking up. “I have to go back home on Wednesday. Could I take it next week?”

“Do you mind if I ask what for?”, Tony asks. “I try not to get in my students’ business, but when it comes to exams… according to policy I have to.”

“Uh, yeah… sure. There was a death in the family awhile back and my aunt just wants to spend some time with me on the anniversary of it,” the college kid spoke, somber in his voice.

“I’m sorry about your loss, Peter,” Tony frowns as he packs some of his stuff up. “Yeah, you can. Send me an email on Wednesday and remind me that you’ll be out, so I can get my crap together for you to take it during office hours next week.” 

“Is this gonna be a Zoom situation like your office hours this week or?”, Peter asks. “Respondus Lockdown?”

“Oh, God, no. I hate that program. It’s an invasion of privacy in my humble opinion. And, I just moved my office hours online this week because I just brought my daughter home from summer camp and want to make up for lost time,” Tony says, pointing over to who he assumes is Morgan. “Was just eight weeks but seems immensely longer.”

“Ah, okay,” the kid nods.

“You simply have no idea, Dad,” Alayna mumbles.

“In person, during office hours. Scantron and all,” Tony says to Peter, not hearing Alayna.

“Thank you, sir,” Peter says before leaving. 

Tony picks up the rest of his things, “Maguna, you ready to roll?”

“Yeah, Dad,” Alayna says, picking up her things and setting them in the purse that she borrowed from Morgan's. “Was that the one kid who came in wearing a Spider-Man cosplay to your class once? What was the deal with that?”

“I told you about that?”, Tony baffles, walking out of the engineering building with Alayna. “Yeah. Apparently he works at a children’s party company and plays various princes and comic book characters to make extra money for tuition and such. One party ran late and therefore made him late for my class. I didn’t even mention the costume and gave him pity… marked him on time, he barely missed anything I was talking about anyway.”

“That’s funny, Dad,” Alayna laughs.

“You keep saying ‘Dad’, Morgan,” Tony says as they walk. “What’s that about?”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize I was doing it, Dad,” Alayna says.

Tony shoots her a look.

“Sorry,” Alayna mumbles. “I just missed getting to call you Dad all the time! Like, yeah, I refer to you as Dad when I’m talking to friends, but like… getting to talk to you. In real time, face to face. I missed it.”

“You really missed your old man that much, huh?”, Tony asks with a small, loving smile. “Well, I missed you so much too.” 

“You have no idea,” Alayna says as she gets in the backseat. 

“If you didn’t love it so much, I’d try to persuade you into not going anymore. Nonna and I miss you too much every summer,” Tony jokes. 

Alayna hums.

About thirty minutes of driving goes by when Tony pulls up to the Stark household. 

Tony’s in the process of getting Alayna’s bags out of the car when Maria rushes out from the front door and wraps her granddaughter in her arms. 

“Oh my goodness! La mia bella ragazza! I missed you so much, Maguna,” Maria exclaims, pulling away from her granddaughter enough to see her. “Look at you! You’ve changed so much!”

“You say that every year, Nonna,” Alayna lets out a small laugh as she looks at her grandmother. “I missed you too.”

“There’s actually something different this time,” Maria shakes her head as the two let go. “Can’t put my finger on it.”

Alayna shrugs as she speaks, “I promise it’s the same ol’ me. Honest.”

“Welcome back,” Maria says as Tony walks to Alayna’s side. 

Alayna is walking inside when she can barely hear her grandmother speaking in Italian to her father and vice versa… Maria’s tone morphed from calm and loving to disapproval real quick. She could pick up every few words, but not enough to understand. 

Calypso trots toward the preteen and is hesitant to come closer before she bends down and lets Calypso smell her.

Alayna uses her free hand to pet the cat’s head, earning a small and quiet meow from the cat before she walks away.

“You ready to unpack your stuff, mini Stark?”, Maria asks upon walking in the door, Tony following behind.

Alayna hums again.

————

“What was that all about?”, Alayna asks as she unzips Morgan’s duffle bag. 

“Cosa?”, Maria returns. 

“You getting mad at Dad,” Alayna answers. “You know, downstairs?”

“It’s not my place to tell,” Maria rolls her eyes. “I’m not mad at him either, just disappointed.”

“Oof, ouch,” Alayna says, pulling out a t-shirt. “The disappointment card.”

“It’s true though, I am,” she raises her hands in surrender after she threw a pair of dirty jeans in Morgan’s laundry basket. 

“Why are you disappointed with Dad?”, Alayna inquires as she tosses the few clothing pieces she gathered in the laundry basket. 

“You’ll find out soon enough little lady,” her grandmother shakes her head ‘no’. “You need not worry right now.”

Maria and Alayna talk to each other for a bit as they unpack, when a car pulls up at the house. 

The preteen gets up and goes toward the window, spotting a blonde haired woman getting out of said vehicle and Tony walking out to greet her. There’s a kiss (more like multiple) that’s shared between the two before they walk inside hand in hand.

“Nonna, w-who’s that?”, Alayna turns around with wide eyes.

“Why I’m disappointed in your father,” Maria states. “Her name’s Christine Everhart.”

“What is her deal?”

“Brown University alumna,” Maria starts to explain. “She was a reporter for Vanity Fair for a while. Vistacorp after that. She moved here last summer because she started working for The Boston Globe.”

“And?”, Alayna asks, sitting back down as she tried not to seem scared. 

“They met briefly before you were born in California sometime in the 90s when she was working for Vanity Fair,” Maria continues. “Nothing came from it. Then the day you leave for camp, she shows up to Harvard for her job. The two met again at a coffeehouse in Cambridge by accident after one of your Dad’s lectures. As you can see, it wasn’t exactly one harmless meeting.”

Alayna’s face scrunches up, “Oh.”

“Now, I love my son and believe in him, yes,” Maria defends herself. “But this isn’t the nineties anymore. Christine‘s type just doesn’t scream ‘single father who wears sweatshirts and denim jeans everywhere unless it’s to his job’ to me. Your Dad in the nineties seems more like her thing, he’s just not the bachelor-of-the-month type anymore like he used to be. So I had to ask myself, what does a hot thing like that want in a guy like my son? And then I realize that she’s most likely not actually after him.”

Alayna wants to question what Maria means, but she can’t quite find the words.

“And all of those billion reasons can be found in his bank account,” Maria purses her lips.

“You think she’s after his money?”, Alayna asks.

“In my opinion, yes,” Maria states. “I can’t tell him I think that though, because he’ll get all defensive and say it’s none of my business what he does anymore. If it were up to me he’d still be married to your mother and not flirting with a woman who has questionable motives. I also have that Mom Instinct making me think that he’s still not over the divorce and believes that he has to start dating again, but as I just said… if I tell him that, he'll get really defensive.”

Alayna just nods, she could only imagine the look on her face. 

Maria shoots her a sympathetic look back, “It’s going to be okay, Morgan. You know what, meet her. See for yourself, my opinion may be way off.”

Tony walks in a few minutes later, “Maguna, you free to come down for a second?”

“Oh, um,” Alayna looks between her grandmother and her father. “Sure.”

Maria shoots her a look as Alayna follows Tony downstairs.

Alayna takes a deep breath once she meets eye contact with Christine in the living room. It felt so hostile and weird as soon as the two saw each other.

“Wait, Tony! Is this the famous Morgan I’ve been hearing so much about?”, Christine exclaims, looking at the preteen.

“That I am. Morgan Hope Stark, it’s a _pleasure_ to make your acquaintance,” Alayna states with a forced smile as she holds her hands behind her back before Tony can answer. “And you are? It’s odd, I’ve never heard about you before. Wonder why.”

“Morgan—“, Tony addresses Alayna. “—this is Christine Everhart.”

“Oh my God, Tony. Maguna is simply adorable,” Christine says.

“Can you not call me that?”, Alayna’s eyes narrow at the woman. “Don’t take it personally, I just prefer to keep that within my family. Mo or Morgan is fine.”

“Oh?”, Christine asks. “Tony, I thought you told her that we—“

“Don’t take it to heart, honey. It takes her a while to warm up to people,” Tony interrupts. “You two chat, I’ll go get drinks. Morgan, sweetheart, what do you want?”

“If you have Dr. Pepper,” Alayna looks at him with a raised brow. “That.”

“I thought you didn’t like Dr. Pepper?”, Tony asks, shooting her a funny look.

“Tried some new and old things again at camp,” Alayna lies. “Like it now.”

“Hm, odd,” Tony says. “My picky eater tried new things over the summer? Wow. Didn’t expect that!” 

“Water,” Christine requests before Tony walks away to the kitchen. She doesn’t speak again until Tony is out of earshot. “So, _Mo_ , how was this camp your Dad was telling me about? Was it fun? Would you like to tell me what it was like?”

“If by fun, you mean a nice unsuspecting distraction tool from my life at home, then yes,” Alayna deadpans. “Hiking… lots and lots of hiking. Singing. Swimming in the lake. Outdoorsy things. Doesn’t seem like you’d be into it.”

Christine takes a sharp breath, “You know, Morgan. Up until your Dad, I’ve _never_ heard a man talk about his daughter the way that Tony talks about you. I honestly thought you were a little kindergartner at first, until he said you were twelve. It’s evident that you two have quite the sweet father-daughter bond.”

“Well, yeah. We’re pretty much all each other has,” Alayna says. “He likes to say that my Nonna and I are the only girls in his life. Where do you go in that equation?” There’s a pause. “Hey, Christine… May I call you Carrie? Christie? I don’t like calling people by their full names. Anyway, I’m really protective over my Daddy, so, what do you want from him? Tell me about yourself, get talkin’.”

Christine baffles and ignores half of Alayna’s request, “Add another variable to that equation, sweetheart.” There’s a pause on her end too. “And neither do I. Christie is fine.”

Tony returns as soon as Christine finishes her sentence and hands each glass to the right person. “Did you two find a way to get acquainted?”

Before anyone can speak, Maria comes downstairs with the Lanie doll in her hands, “Maguna, it seems you brought a stowaway home with you in your bag? I don’t recognize her.”

Alayna’s eyes widen when she sees the doll and she mumbles, “Oh my God, Lanie.”

“Lanie?”, both Tony and Maria ask, sharing a look. 

“Uh, my bunk mate and I have similar bags…”, Alayna lies. “It’s hers! The doll’s name is Lanie. She must’ve accidentally packed her in mine. I’ll let her know her doll accidentally went home with me and mail Lanie to her if that’s alright.”

“That’s okay if it’s alright with her parents,” Tony raises a brow.

“She only has a Mom,” Alayna mutters before looking back at Christine and Tony. “May I go back to my room?”

“Yeah, sure,” Tony nods. As Alayna walks back upstairs with Maria, she can hear him go, “Did you two actually find something to discuss?”

She sets her cup of soda on her bedside table and sends off a text to Morgan: “Call me as soon as you can. It’s important.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for the continued support! If you liked it, it would mean so much if you dropped kudos if you haven’t already, commented, or shared it with your pepperony-lovin friends! 
> 
> If you want more fic updates or to chat with me, check my socials!!  
> Twitter: aoskayla  
> Tumblr: akasharpiegirl 
> 
> Love you all, stay safe!


	5. Morgan Meets Her Mother

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Morgan flies into California and meets her mother for the first time since she was a baby. Pepper has a mental breakdown once her daughter leaves the room to make a call.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Second upload for the October 11 special!

**[3:38 PM PDT]**

**Morgan:**

“Home again,” Happy announces as he pulls in the driveway of the Malibu mansion. “Your Mom moved her meetings so she could spend some time with you.”

Morgan smiles at Happy before she gets out of the car and runs to the door. It unlocks as she reaches it and JARVIS welcomes her home, “Good afternoon, Alayna. Welcome back from camp. Your mother is in her office and I will alert her of your arrival.” She was glad the AI only had facial recognition built in, because there’s no way she would’ve been able to switch places if JARVIS could easily do a complex genetics comparison. 

Happy is just then taking Alayna’s bags out of the back of the car when Morgan runs inside.

Morgan makes her way to where she remembered the office was, and stands at the doorway in shock. 

It wasn’t until Pepper turned around that Morgan said something, “Mama!”

“Alayna, my baby! You’re back!”, Pepper says as she walks over to her and wraps her daughter in her arms. “I missed you so much.” She kisses her cheek. 

Morgan holds onto her mother as if she’d vanish into thin air if they were to let go. “I-I missed you more than you’ll know, Mom. It feels like it’s been forever.” 

The two do let go, and Morgan’s grateful that Pepper didn’t vanish like she usually did in her dreams. A small, content smile appears on her lips as she sees her Mother for the first time in who knows how long. “My goodness, you’ve changed so much! Have you gotten taller or something? It has been too long, Lanie. I’m not bringing you back there unless you absolutely want to go back. I missed you too much!”

Morgan laughed as the two sat on the loveseat in her office. “I actually had a really good time, Mom.”

“You did?”, Pepper asks, holding her daughter’s hand in hers. “Would you like to tell me all about it?” 

“Oh, it was absolutely wonderful!”, Morgan says. “I met a few friends. One girl’s from Massachusetts.”

“O-Oh,” Pepper blinked. “Mass… Massachusetts? Wow. What area?”

“Yeah. Around Somerset,” Morgan lies. “An hour from Boston.” She decides to push her luck. “She’s not actually  _ from  _ Massachusetts. She was born around here and moved there with her Dad when she was a toddler, isn’t that interesting?”

Pepper’s eyes widened, there’s panic in her face. “That is, um, interesting. Small world, huh? I-Is this Massachusetts friend of yours the same friend you were bunking with?”, Pepper asks with a conflicted expression. “Possibly the same girl who cut your hair? I love it by the way.”

“Oh, yeah. That’s her! Thank you. Her name’s Morgan Brooks,” Morgan says, lying through her teeth. “We got into a big fight the day after the first phone call you and I shared… got sent to the Friendship Cabin together a few days. Realized it was truly nothing worth arguing over and got really close after that. She’s really sweet.”

“Oho, the good ol’ Parkington Friendship Cabins,” Pepper stifles a laugh, Morgan can’t tell if it’s sincere or nerves. “I met my best friend because of the Friendship Cabins at Parkington my first year there, too, you know.”

“Yeah?”

“Mhm. Her name is Alicia, I believe you’ve met her a few times before,” Pepper says. “Was one of my bridesmaids at my wedding  _ all _ those years ago.”

Morgan nods. 

Pepper veers the subject slightly, “Does she have big dreams for college? I know I did when I was your age. It’s never too early to start thinkin’ about college, you know.”

“She wants to go to MIT,” Morgan answers. “Her Dad went there.”

“O-Oh, wow. MIT? I-Is that so? That’s a big dream,” Pepper inquires, her voice shaky. “I hope life takes her where she wants to go.”

Alayna’s phone beeps and Morgan just mumbles, “That might be her.” She lets go of her mother’s hand and pulls the phone out of her purse. 

She read the two text messages from Alayna:

“ _ Call me as soon as you can. It’s important _ ,” was sent at 4:28 PM eastern.

“ _ Please tell me you’re almost home. I really need to talk to you,”  _ was sent at 6:41 PM eastern.

“Do you mind if I call her real quick?”, Morgan asks. “She says it’s important.”

“Of course, Lanie. We’ll regroup later,” Pepper nods before Morgan runs out of her mother’s office and up to Alayna's room. 

**Pepper:**

Pepper waits until her daughter is out of earshot before she freaks.

“Pepper, I got—“

“Happy, I don’t know what to do,” she looks at him as he steps in her home office. 

“Do about what?”, Happy raises a brow.

“I think she knows,” she says. “About Tony and me… about Morgan.”

“You and Tony? How?”

“At Camp she said she met a friend named Morgan,” Pepper explains. “Which, after thinking through it, I didn’t dwell on it anymore because Morgan’s a common name. But then, today, Alayna tells me this Morgan friend of hers lives in Massachusetts… who also moved there from California when she was a toddler, and even alluded to the fact that ‘Morgan’s Dad is single! Mentioned that her dad graduated from MIT, too!”

Happy suppresses a skeptical look before trying to calm her, “I’m sure it’s just an odd coincidence, Pep. I think she would’ve come to you and asked you about it if she knew by now. She’s a curious kid, don’t try to get too worked up about it since she hasn’t outright asked you about him.”

She sighs as she runs a hand through her bangs, “I really hope you’re right. I wouldn’t know what to do or say if she knew.”

  
  


**[Massachusetts]**

**Alayna:**

“Can I take this?”, Alayna asks in the middle of their traditional family movie night that they held every single time Morgan came home from camp. Tonight’s movie was The Secret World of Arrietty…. One of Morgan’s (and coincidentally one of Alayna’s) favorite movies. “It’s Alayna. Probably about the doll.”

Tony looks at her with an unconvinced expression, “You take phone calls now?”

“Aside from you and this one time?”, Alayna starts. “No.”

Tony laughs before pausing the film, “Yeah, sure. Tell your friend I said hello.”

Alayna presses the answer button as she makes it halfway upstairs. “Hey, give me a sec. I gotta get to my room. Also, my Dad told me to say hello to ya.”

“Oh, aw. I miss him! Anyway, what is all the fuss about?”, Morgan asks. “You knew I wasn’t going to get home until almost 4 pm over here!”

“Dad’s in love!”, Alayna yelps as soon as she closes the door. 

“What? Are you crazy?! He can’t be. Dad doesn’t just fall in love,” Morgan disagrees. “At least not seriously. That man has never fallen in love in his life! You know, not since Mom.”

“He seems pretty serious to me!”, Alayna says, sitting down on the bed, next to where Morgan’s cat laid down on a throw pillow. “My first impression of her literally included seeing them making out while I was unpacking in your room. I saw them from the window. Then they were holding each other’s hand on their way inside. When I was coming out from the kitchen for movie night, he was kissing her neck! It’s almost as if he’s worshiping the ground she walks on.”

Morgan was quiet for a moment before mumbling, “He is?”

“Yes and it’s revolting,” Alayna whines. “Her name is Christine Everhart. She also tried to call you Maguna. S he seemed almost offended and if she knew something I didn’t when I said you didn’t like people outside of your family calling you by that name!”

“Oh, God! Ew! You’re going to have to break them up or something,” Morgan says. “Please.”

“I’m trying to come up with something, I swear,” Alayna assures. “But I’m at a giant disadvantage compared to you. I just re-met the man six hours ago, meanwhile you two have known each other for twelve and a half years! You’ve got to get back here to help me, Morgan. I can’t do this alone.”

“Alayna, I can't. I won’t! I want more time with Mom than just twenty four hours. I just got to meet her ten minutes ago,” Morgan raises her voice. “I still haven’t gotten time to ask her about how they met.”

“Fine. I still haven’t asked Dad about what happened to them either,” Alayna says. “I’ll keep you updated. If something drastic goes down with Christine and Dad, will you please be more open to breaking the news to her? I’m just one kid, I really can’t do this by myself.”

“Tell Nonna! You don’t have to tell her you’re Alayna for her to get why you don’t like Lady Tremaine,” Morgan answers. “And fine. Sure. If something goes down, text me first so I can call out of earshot from my mom… unless you want to speak in code.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading and your continued support! If you feel led, please leave kudos if you haven’t already, drop your thoughts in a comment, or share my series with your pepperony-lovin’ friends!
> 
> If you want to get more fic updates and chat with me, here are my socials!  
> Twitter: aoskayla   
> Tumblr: akasharpiegirl 
> 
> Love you all, stay safe out there!


	6. Dad Wants to Get Married? To Her?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maria and Happy find out, the girls receive some bad news, and Christine is still as evil as ever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OH! LOOK AT THAT! Another chapter, yall! You know what that means? All chapters are fully written! Let the chapter drop protocol commence!  
> Thank you so much for your patience as I’ve posted chapters every few days, and I apologize as some of you will be receiving a lotta emails from me within the next day or two. Haha!

**[08.03.21**

**1:05 PM EST]**

**Alayna:**

Alayna walks downstairs with Calypso following close behind after waking up. She finds her way to the kitchen, seeing Maria walk in from the patio. Calypso finds her way to her food bowl.

“Good afternoon, sleeping beauty,” Maria greets her. “Some of your breakfast is in the fridge since you overslept. Crêpes need to be reheated before eating. Sausage is still on the stove and the toast is to the left. Have at it.”

“Where’s Dad?”, Alayna asks as she puts two sausages on her plate and toast. She sits down at the island. 

“Had a call meeting with one of his students, out by the lake,” Maria answers, before raising a brow. “You don’t want a Crêpe? That’s like your favorite thing. Is something going on?” 

“Not that hungry,” Alayna shrugs.

”You know, now that I think about it… I think I finally figured it out. It’s like you’re a completely separate person. Completely different appetite, sleep schedule, and whatever kinda aura you’ve got going on. I knew something was off the second I saw you,” Maria scrunches her face as she thinks. “What’s going on, la mia ragazza? You sick or something?” She presses her palm to Alayna’s forehead and the back of her neck to check for a temperature for a moment.

“No, Nonna! Just changed a lot over camp this year,” Alayna’s eyes widened as she eats the toast. “Promise.” 

“Because if I didn’t know any better, I’d think you were…”, she trails off.

“W-Who? Nonna? Who would I be?”, Alayna asks, setting down her half eaten sausage.

“Nobody, Morgan. Forget I said anything,” Maria mumbles, walking away. “It can’t be.” She mutters something else under her breath in Italian.

Alayna gets up, following her, “Almost as if I were _Alayna_?”

“Cosa?” Maria turns around, “How… How do you know who that is?”

“I-I am Alayna,” Alayna stutters, barely loud enough for anyone to hear. 

Maria gasps as she brings her left hand up to cover her shocked expression right before Tony walks in from the patio.

“Maguna, can I talk to you for a minute?”, he asks, before spotting his mother stare at his daughter with this look of awe. “Mom, what’s wrong? You’re looking at Morgan as if you’ve seen a ghost!”

“Oh, nothings wrong,” Maria briefly looks up from Alayna to her son, and then back down again. “I’m looking at Morgan the same way I’ve looked at my granddaughter for the last twelve and a half years. Since the day she came home from the hospital in Malibu.” She looks like she’s on the verge of crying now as she steps closer to Alayna. “The little girl that was 5 pounds, 12 ounces and 19 inches… this is always how I look at her.” 

She hugs her granddaughter tight, “She’s gotten so big! Smart, beautiful… oh my goodness, where has the time gone?” 

Alayna whispers to her grandmother, “Grazie.”

Maria kisses Alayna’s cheek before backing away, eyes were watery. She speaks as if nothing happened, “Morgan, go talk with your father.” Immediately after, she walks upstairs. 

“O- _Okay_?”, Tony’s brow furrows as he walks with Alayna outside. 

**Tony:**

“What is it you wanted to talk to me about, Dad?”, his daughter asks as she follows him to the swing. “I wanted to talk to you too, but you go first.”

“No, you go first, kid,” Tony says. “I’m still trying to figure out how to ask you my question.

“Um… w-what happened between you and Mom?”, she asks. “I’m almost thirteen, I feel like I’m old enough to know what happened between you two. I know it was divorce, Nonna’s the only reason I do.”

His mind goes blank for a moment as he recalls one of the last memories he has of his ex-wife.

_“Look, I just feel like we’re not having enough, ‘us’ time,” a thirty-five year old Tony Stark, says, cuddling up to his wife once they had tucked in their daughters for the night. “When was the last time we went on a real date? Just you and me?”_

_Pepper’s quiet. “I… uh, I don’t know. Um, before the babies, maybe?”_

_“How about tomorrow?”, he asks. “Nice dinner. The whole deal.”_

_“I can’t,” Pepper shakes her head. “Teleconference with a Japanese investor.”_

_“Oh,” Tony sighs. “What about next weekend?”_

_“Business trip, Venice,” she rejects the idea. “Plus, our babysitter’s out too… anniversary trip for her and her partner. You’d have to stay back because they’re still too young to come with us.”_

“Dad?”, his daughter asks, her voice scared. “Are you okay?”

He tries to recover from the lapse of attentiveness and sudden recollection of one of his last memories of Pepper, “Maguna, we’ve talked about your mother before.”

“Not really,” she shakes her head. “A teenage girl needs more than a crumpled ripped photo of her mother, Dad. At least tell me what she was like. I shouldn’t have asked what came between you two, I’m sorry.”

_“Honey, I—“_

_“I don’t know what else to do, Tony. This arrangement just is not working anymore,” Pepper murmurs. “I’m going home with Alayna for awhile.”_

_“This is home?”_

_“Connecticut,” Pepper corrects. “With my Mom.”_

_“O-Oh,” he mumbles._

_Upon saying goodbye to more than half of his world, it was just him and Morgan in that big house. He couldn’t hold it together any longer once Pepper had walked away._

_They set a date to reconvene a few days later over the phone, but neither showed up three months later. And so, he moved out to Massachusetts with his nine month old daughter. He officially became a single father once the divorce papers were signed sometime after he moved._

“Dad? Are you sure you’re okay?”, his daughter snaps him out of his thoughts again. 

“Oh, um, I’m okay,” Tony assures, putting his arm around her. He can fabricate the story a bit, no big deal. “Your Mother was… is… gorgeous. Out of my league, if I’m being 100% honest here. She’s smart. Your Mom… she was better at math than me in some cases, which completely baffled me when I first met her. She has this insane sense of humor that only a few can get. I bet you could get it if you ever met her. We thought that we weren’t right for each other after a while. Found out we had different dreams, different goals, different ideas and it led to a really rough couple of weeks filled with argument after argument with not much of any resolve. Better for us to go out our own paths, you know?” He pauses. “I often wish I could’ve gone back and made things right. Assure her that we’d figure something out. I regret not going back more everyday, honestly. I’d probably go back if I had a chance. Even if it didn’t result in getting back together… just an ability to actually be civil. For you, especially.”

She nods. “What was it that you wanted to talk to me about?”

“Oh, um,” Tony mind darts to Christine. “What is your opinion on Christine?”

“As what? A reporter? A person?”, his daughter asks. 

“A person,” he says. 

“She looks nicely put together and she has good teeth,” she answers. “Honestly, I don’t know her all that well. She’s a total stranger to me. Why do you even want my opinion?”

“I asked her to marry me,” Tony hesitantly states. “And she said yes.”

Her eyes grow wide and she looks away from her Dad, “You… you, what?” She folds her arms and looks panicked. 

“I want to make her a part of our family, Maguna.”

She wriggles out of Tony’s gentle hold and before she has a second to think, she yells, “Marry her? You want to marry Christine? Oh, how lovely!” Tony attempts to address her, but she keeps spewing. “How can you _honestly_ be okay with marrying a woman you’ve only been dating for eight weeks? Who I don’t even know? When you literally just said you’d still go back to Mom if you had the chance to make things right?”

“Morgan! Calm down, please?”, Tony asks as she takes a second to breathe. 

She lets out a shaky breath, “I-I’m sorry.”

“What has gotten into you, sweetheart?”, Tony asks, veering the subject. “Are you alright?”

Tears brim her eyes as he stands up. There’s a few feet in between them. “Nothing, yeah, I just… I just…” She glances up at him. “No, Dad. You can’t get married! It’ll ruin everything! Please...” She looks over at the sliding door leading to the indoors and she breaks for it. She lets out a small whine as the tears fall and she makes it upstairs. Tony calls after her as she runs, but she won’t correct her path.

“I told you she was going to take it badly,” Maria says when she walks into the kitchen, where he stood dumbfounded. “I’d suggest you wait a bit before requesting to talk it out with her again.”

**[10:08 AM PST]**

**Pepper:**

Pepper’s daughter sits with her on the couch, “Mama? Can I ask you something?” She had just come downstairs after changing for gymnastics.

She looks up from her work, “Sure, I’ve got a couple minutes before both of us leave. What’s on your mind?”

“How did you and Dad meet?”, the preteen asks. 

Pepper raises a brow as she tries to push away her memories of Tony and the recollection of Alayna’s statements from the other day, “Uh… why the sudden interest in your Dad?”

“Maybe because he’s _never_ mentioned and I don’t want my father to be a taboo subject,” her daughter states. “You can’t blame me for wondering, Mom. It’s not like you can avoid the subject forever!”

Pepper takes a deep breath, “Okay then, Lanie. I'll try my best to answer your questions. What would you like to know?”’

“Can you start from the very beginning?”, she inquires.

“Hm,” Pepper hums. “Well, I first met him when I was working as an accountant for the company I now run. Well, I had just been fired for trying to help the company not run into financial ruin, actually.”

She nods.

“And I wasn’t having it, because I knew that if the first run through of the numbers went through to the budget, we’d probably go bankrupt in a matter of days,” Pepper answers. “So I begged to see the CEO. They wouldn’t let me see him, so I fought my way up to speak with him.”

Pepper’s daughter nods again, cuddling up next to her Mom. 

Pepper runs her fingers through ‘Alayna’s hair as she continues, “Long story short… he listens to me, I completely save his company from bankruptcy even after being fired… and he offers me a job.”

“The one you have now?”

“No, that’s a little later,” Pepper shakes her head.

_“See, no. You do it,” twenty-nine year old Tony says oh-so-casually. “You run the company.”_

_“Huh?”, Pepper asks, blindsided._

_The two start talking over each other faster then both of their brains could think through their thoughts._

_“I’m trying to make you CEO! Why won’t you let me?”_

_Pepper blinks._

_“Come on, Pepper. You and I both know you are wasting your talent working for me when you should be the leader of this whole operation,” he says with a smile. “It’s always been you, you’re the one meant for this job. Not me.”_

_“I don’t think that I—“_

_“I hereby irrevocably appoint you as chairman and CEO of Stark Industries,” he announces, stepping closer to her. “Effective immediately.”_

_“But I—“_

_“Irrevocably,” he repeats._

_“I don’t know what to say,” Pepper says._

_“You don’t have to,” Tony answers her. “Congratulations. Celebrate! You earned it.”_

“I became his personal assistant and we became close friends. I remained as his PA, until he decided to appoint me in 2003 and step down… because according to him, ‘you are wasting your talent working for me when you should be the leader of this whole operation’. Those were his exact words! Come to find out that he had an enormous crush on me. Frankly, so did I, on him. But we didn’t admit it to each other until the night the company held a gala to introduce me as CEO. It was a wonderful night. We danced, against my better judgement. ...and then kissed for the first time on the rooftop of the building it was held at.”

“Aw,” Morgan mumbles. 

_“Pick me up at 6?”, a twenty-nine year old Pepper asks._

_Tony nods with a small smile, “That’s doable.”_

_“Theater at 6:45, pizza and ice cream afterward. Have me home by eleven,” Pepper answers._

“Our first date was one of the funnest nights I’ve ever had. He never had been on a stereotypical teenage date before because he started college so young, so I planned one… He picked me up at my house, took me to the movies, we saw School of Rock because it was the only one remotely interesting to both of us and we sat in the back. He freaked out a little bit when there was an AC/DC reference. After that, we got pepperoni pizza at this small local restaurant, and got ice cream at Baskin Robbins. I got chocolate chip ice cream and he got German chocolate. And then he drove me home,” Pepper says, there’s _happiness_ in her voice when she speaks.

“That’s so sweet,” her daughter gushes. 

_“Well if you hadn't appointed me in 2003, we wouldn’t be in this position. Would we?”, Pepper raises her voice._

_“It would just shift the blame,” Tony mumbles, looking up at her with hurt eyes._

_“No, we wouldn’t be together at all. It’s not fun to think about it, but we both know it’s true.”_

_There was a deafening silence shared between them._

_“What if this… what if this wasn’t meant to be and this is the universe trying to give us the memo?”, Pepper asks, there’s tears in her eyes._

Pepper’s voice goes a little somber, “We got married in 2005 and I got pregnant with you in spring of 2008. Then things just kind of, stopped working once you were about six months old. But it had nothing to do with you, sweetheart.” She glances at her daughter’s facial expression. “We both had different dreams in life, goals, ideas. Decided it would be best if we separated for a while. We set a date to meet back up and decide if we should try our relationship again and neither of us showed up. Or, at least, I didn’t. If he had, he didn’t call and ask where I was. I was scared he wouldn’t show if I did. He probably was too. Sometimes I wish we could’ve worked it out so you could at least go back and forth between us every so often. I can’t bring myself to date again because it’s as if my heart knows we could’ve figured something out.”

“Yeah…”, the girl mumbles, sitting back up.

“I’m getting kind of peckish, would you like me to grab you a snack too before I head to my meeting?”, Pepper changes the subject, standing up. 

“Uh, sure. Crackers if we have any, please,” Pepper’s daughter nods, pulling out her phone.

“Alayna, you ready to go to your gym—“, Pepper can hear Happy start before he trails off as they both hear ‘Alayna’ spew out her feelings in sentences in… Italian?

“Alayna?”, Pepper enters from the kitchen with a sleeve of crackers in tow.

The girl stops in her tracks, spotting her mother staring back at her with wide, heartbroken eyes. 

She shrieks before a stray batch of tears collect on her cheeks and she runs outside to the pool. “Oh God, I blew it. I totally blew it.” 

**Happy:**

“What on Earth was that?”, Pepper asks Happy. “I didn’t even know she spoke… Italian? Where’d that even come from?”

“Heck if I know,” Happy shrugs. “You have that meeting at 10:45, by the way.”

“Will Alayna be alright?”, Pepper asks. “I feel like this is more important than a monthly meeting that’s just set up to tell me what I’m doing wrong.”

“I’ll check up on her while you’re away. I’ll keep you updated if you would like,” Happy offers. 

“Please,” Pepper sighs, handing him the package of crackers. “She said she was in the mood for a snack before she freaked.”

He walks out to the pool a moment later after setting down the crackers on the coffee table, spotting the preteen sitting at the edge of the pool with her feet resting on the first step. The water just barely covered her ankles. 

“Kid,” Happy calls from behind her. “Are you okay?”

She looks over her right shoulder, before scoffing and looking back. “Did Mom send you out here to make sure I was okay?”

“Sorta yes, sorta no,” Happy answers. “My idea, she agreed. What’s wrong, Lanie? Where’d you learn Italian?”

“Would you believe me if I said I learned it at camp?”, she asks, tracing meaningless letters in the water with her finger. 

“Not really,” Happy answers, sitting down on one of the outdoor chairs nearby. “That type of fluency doesn’t just come in two months.”

She sighs, “Um, I… I should’ve known this wouldn’t have worked.”

“What wouldn’t have worked?”

“It’s a long story,” she says. 

“And your Mom’s got a long, boring board meeting,” Happy says. “You can talk to me, Alayna.”

“I-I’m not Alayna,” she stutters. “S-She’s in Massachusetts with her father, Tony Stark.”

Happy’s eyes widened, “You… you’re Morgan?” He looks down for a brief moment before looking back at the preteen. “Dang. Didn’t expect that.”

Morgan nods. 

“I haven’t seen you since you were a baby... Oh my— How did you—“

“We met at… a-at camp,” Morgan says as a tear collides with the water and makes the tiniest splash that barely makes her flinch. “A-Alayna was my bunk mate. We got sent to the Friendship Cabin about a week and a half in because we got… we got in this stupid fight that would’ve been easily resolved if we would’ve just talked it out. Neither of us talked to each other until I heard her crying because she missed home. Which, I-I’ve been through that before, so I tried to comfort her… you know? I told her that when I wanted to go home early my first year, the counselor asked me if I wanted to talk about my family and me telling her about my family helped. So I, you know, asked her if she wanted to tell me about her family. ...and she did. S-She told me about Mom, about you and the going home deal... said her dad wasn’t in the picture.”

She glances at Happy with teary eyes before continuing, “Then, she asked about mine. So, I told her about Dad, my Nonna, and Uncle R-Rhodey. Alayna randomly asked if she could see a p-photo of my family, so I showed her one. She flipped out and showed me a crumpled photo she had of _my_ Dad. Then I recognized the background where the… where the photo was taken and realized I had a photo of Mom there. Showed it to her. A-And then we figured out we were sisters… twins.”

“Oh, Morgan,” Happy says, sympathetically. 

“We made this plan so we could switch places… so I could meet Mom… she could meet Dad,” Morgan says, standing up and out of the pool. “But now, I-I’m three thousand and twenty eight miles away from my home and I just found out over text via my newfound twin that our Dad is getting remarried. To a woman I don’t even know.”

“Tony’s getting remarried?”, Happy asks, dumbfounded. “To who?”

“According to Alayna, a woman named Christine Everhart—“

“Everhart?”, Happy repeats, there’s shock in his voice. 

Morgan looks at him, “Do you know her?”

“She didn’t know me, but I knew of her,” Happy answers. “She used to report for Vanity Fair. Came to a lot of press conferences for the company, especially back when your Dad was CEO. God, what is that man thinking? He still hasn’t figured out that your Mom is his only match?”

“Glad my sister and I aren’t the only ones that think that,” Morgan mumbles.

“You know you have to tell your Mom now, right?”, Happy asks. “Not about your Dad remarrying. You and Alayna switching places.”

“I know…”, Morgan nods before wiping her eyes.

“Your Mom will be home in about an hour,” he says. “I’ll call Alayna’s coach and tell her that _she_ can’t make it to practice today. So that way you don’t accidentally break your neck and you have time to figure out a way to tell your Mom.”

“Thanks…”

**[1:46 PM EST]**

**Alayna:**

“Knock knock,” Christine’s voice comes from the outside of Morgan’s door. “Your Dad will be up shortly, but I felt called to try to talk it out with you first.”

“Go away,” Alayna mutters, throwing a throw pillow toward the door. “You’re ruining everything.”

“Am I now?”, Christine asks, opening the door anyway, forcing the throw pillow to push into the room.

“Did I tell you that you could open my door?”, Alayna rebuts, wiping away her tears with her left hand as she hugs onto Morgan’s Courtney doll with her right. 

“I’m guessing you’re referring to the news of the engagement when you say that I’m ruining everything, huh?”, Christine asks upon turning around Morgan’s desk chair and sitting at it. 

“Basically, yeah,” Alayna nods. 

Calypso runs into Morgan’s room, jumps on her bed, and finds comfort on Alayna’s lap then. She pets the calico cat’s head with her left hand. Calypso lets out a small meow. 

“You want your father to yourself, I get it. It’s the first bullet point in the first unit of ‘Daddy’s Getting Remarried 101’. Don’t feel bad for reacting that way,” Christine says. She veers a little. “I remember what it was like to be your age.”

Alayna raises her eyebrows, “Oh?”

“I had my first boyfriend when I was around thirteen,” she continues. “It’s a great age. You’re just starting to feel like a woman and soon you’ll get what it’s like to be in love. And not just watching from the outside in like you are seeing between your Dad and me.”

“Me? Huh, no. I don’t think so,” the preteen shakes her head as she scrunched up her face in disgust. “When I was five I promised my Dad that I wouldn’t date until I was fifty and I’m starting to think that reigns true. I’ll believe that me comforting my sad Dad by lying didn’t curse me when I see myself in a wedding gown before I retire.”

“I felt the same way, Morgan,” Christine says. “But take it from me when I say that being in love is just simply a wonderful journey that can take any—“

“I don’t mean to be mean when you’re trying to be sentimental, but I really think I know what mystery my Dad sees in you,” Alayna states.

“Do you now?”

“The man’s only human,” Alayna shrugs. “All guys who are attracted to them love sexy and beautiful women. It’s just a fact.”

She can practically _see_ Christine’s ego grow.

“But isn’t marriage supposed to be based off something more than just sex, right?”, Alayna asks. “You know, love… admiration… all of that?”

“Being sexy and beautiful isn’t exactly a crime, you know,” Christine tries to bypass the question. “And for your information, honey. I love your father. I _adore_ him. He’s exactly the type of man I always dreamt of marrying.”

Alayna blinks, trying to suppress her anger.

“This is the real deal, _Maguna_. ...and nothing you do to stop it is going to come between your Daddy and me. Hate to break it to ya, you little angel,” Christine scoffs. “He’s adding me into that little equation of his life and you can’t do anything about it. Get over it.” She stands up and walks back over to the cracked door. 

Alayna takes a deep breath, “If this is the real deal then… my Dad’s money has nothin’ to do with your want to marry him? _Right_?”

Christine is taken aback by the assumption put forth by ‘Morgan’, causing her to gasp. “Okay, you little brat. You listen here. I am marrying your dear old Dad in two and a half weeks whether you like it and approve of me or not. So I suggest you start treating me with respect because you are in _way_ over your head. You don’t want to mess with me. That clear?”

“Perfectly,” Alayna deadpans.

Christine storms out of Morgan’s room then, and even Calypso hisses at the older woman.

It’s a few minutes later when Tony steps right in the entryway of Morgan’s room. “You still like me enough that I can at least come in and have a chat with you?” There’s a slight pause. “You don’t have to say anything if you don’t want to.”

Alayna sighs, “At least you asked.”

Tony steps in the room and picks up the thrown pillow before sitting on Morgan’s bed. “I’m sorry, Morgan.”

“What on Earth could you be sorry for?”, Alayna asks, looking to her left at him. “You like someone aside from Mom. Big whoop! I’m just a kid. I don’t get a say in it anyway, apparently.”

“Now, that’s not true,” Tony shakes his head before he scoots back so he can look at his daughter. She was curled up under her quilt, with tears on her cheeks. Calypso was still on her lap and Courtney was still tucked in her right arm. 

“Oh?”, Alayna asks. “Christine seems to think that I don’t have a say. So which is it, Dad?”

“You can’t _tell_ me to not get married. I’m my own person _and_ your Dad,” Tony says. “But, you can tell me how you’re feeling about all of this and what I could do to make this change easier for you. Your opinions and feelings are valid, kid. I can’t help you if you don’t tell me what you’re thinking in that big brain of yours.”

“I’m afraid I’m going to lose you,” Alayna says. “I feel like everything’s just going to change and you’re not going to care about me anymore.”

“Outside of me getting remarried, nothing is going to change, kid,” Tony says. “You’re not losing me, I promise. You’re the one who kept me going every single day when the divorce was finalized, kid. There’s no way I would ever stop caring about you. And if someone I liked tried to make me not care about my daughter, I’d let them go easily. It’s simple as that.” 

“Well it feels like you wouldn’t,” Alayna sighs. 

“What can I do to make you feel like you’re not going to lose me in three weeks?”, he asks. “I really wish you didn’t have that fear, Maguna.”

She’s quiet, and even contemplates telling him that she’s not exactly Morgan. But her thoughts are interrupted when a notification comes through. 

She manages to pull up the message and keep it from her Dad’s view. From Morgan, it read, “ _I am telling Mom today that I’m not you when she gets back from her meeting… I have to, Happy found out. Let me know if you have a good meeting spot._ ”

“I don’t know,” Alayna says to Tony as she types a response back. It read: “ _I’ll see what I can do._ _Good luck._ ” She sets her phone down, case facing up.

He lets out a deep breath before speaking, “Tell ya what. This was originally supposed to be just me, Christine, and her parents, but… After I hold the exam for my summer class that I teach, I’m going to Boston for two days regarding a get together with Christine and her parents. If you want to come with me, they can deal with it if they don’t like it. You can get to know her with me there, which may make it easier. After that, we’ll have our annual summer camping trip over the weekend. Just you and me.”

Alayna sighs, “Sure, that’s okay.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!
> 
> Check my socials for more fic based updates and random fun!  
> Twitter: aoskayla  
> Tumblr: akasharpiegirl


	7. Mama (Sorta) Finds Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pepper finds out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for your continued support!!

**[12:03 PM PST]**

**Morgan:**

“Happy told me you wanted to talk to me?”, Pepper asks, stepping inside of Alayna’s room.

Morgan looked over from Alayna’s reading nook and gulps before standing up and finding a spot on the edge of the bed to sit at. “Uh, yeah.”

“What’s the matter, my love?”, Pepper wonders, sitting on the right side of her: “You skipped gymnastics. You not feeling well, Lanie?”

“Lanie’s… um, she’s in Massachusetts with her father, Tony Stark,” Morgan comes clean, looking at her fidgeting fingers as she’s afraid to make eye contact with her Mother.

“You’re  _ not _ Alayna?”, Pepper’s eyes widened. “Wow, I was right... sorta.”

“Afraid not,” Morgan sighs. “I’m, uh, Morgan Stark. But I’m guessing that’s clear—wait. You knew?”

“Can you look at me, please?”, Pepper says, trying to keep her cool. “And, yes, I had a suspicion. Didn’t think you two _switched places_ on us, though.”

Morgan hesitantly looks at her Mom. “Alayna and I were bunk mates. ...got into an argument, then got sent to the Friendship Cabin together. Alayna got homesick one of those nights and when I was tryin’ to help her through it, we figured out we were sisters.”

Pepper covers her mouth with her right hand as she looks at her daughter in awe. 

“She really wanted to know what Dad was like and I’ve been dreaming of meeting you my entire life. So we, um, switched places at the end of camp. I-I’m sorry,” Morgan mumbles. “Please don’t be mad. I just wanted to know what it was, um, like to feel loved by my Mom.”

“Oh, Morgan,” Pepper says with a sympathetic voice. “Come here, kid.” Pepper opens her arms for Morgan, and she collapses into them. She cradled her daughter’s head. “I’ve always loved you. Every single day of your life. I’m so sorry it had to happen the way that it did.”

“I, um, guess you have to switch us back now, huh?”, Morgan asks a minute or two later, sitting back up. 

“Unfortunately, legally, you are in your Dad’s custody and Alayna is in mine,” Pepper sighs. 

“No offense Mama, but the whole his and hers kids set up kinda sucks,” Morgan sighs.

“I know,” Pepper shakes her head with a small frown and tears in her eyes.

“Then I say we fly to Boston, see Dad and Alayna, and figure all of this out,” Morgan suggests. 

“And I agree,” Pepper nods. “I’ll figure it all out, don’t worry, okay?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since this chapter is a short one, I will be posting two more before I go to bed tonight. Then I’ll continue posting off and on tomorrow (10/12) until all parts (minus the epilogue) have been posted. Date for epilogue has not been decided yet.
> 
> Follow my socials to keep up with fic updates and my insanity!  
> Twitter: aoskayla  
> Tumblr: akasharpiegirl


	8. The Plan Unravels

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Both families arrive at the same hotel. What could go wrong?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for the continued support and want to read my work. It means the world!

**[08.04.21**

**11:39 AM PST]**

**Morgan:**

Morgan hides on the stairwell that led down to the living room.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to accompany you and Morgan to this?”, Happy asks. “No offense, but you don’t look so good.”

“Well, I haven’t seen my ex-husband in over eleven years. How would you honestly feel if it were you?”, Pepper panics as she throws things in her suitcase. “Separate kids, separate states, completely separate coasts. No chance! Ha, we were so wrong.”

“Oh, yes,” Happy shakes his head. “You have a valid reason to feel the way that you do. But, you’re just more panicked than I expected you to be.”

“It’s been, what? Almost twelve years since I saw Tony last?”, Pepper mumbles. “What if he doesn’t even recognize me?”

“You haven’t changed much since then,” Happy shrugs. “I doubt that’s a possibility, Pepper. But if I were you, and I were seeing my ex after all these years, I would consider breaking out the dress you wore at the gala back then.”

“How’d you know I still have that?”, Pepper asks with a raised brow.

“You wore it at your most recent press conference,” Happy states. “The media didn’t shut up about you rewearing it for a whole month after that.”

“Oh,” Pepper sighs. “You really think I should?”

Before Happy answers, Morgan walks downstairs. “I just got off the phone with Dad. He said he’s really anxious to see you!”

“Dreading it anxious or excited about it anxious?”, Pepper inquires.

Happy shoot Morgan a look before Morgan answers, “Anxious excited.”

“Oh, wow,” Pepper stifles a nervous laugh.

“He wants to meet with us tomorrow at noon at The Boston Hotel,” Morgan announced. 

“That’s soon,” Pepper’s eyes widened.

“What’s sooner is your flight that is set to depart in thirty minutes,” Happy interjects. “Morgan, you good to go?”

Morgan nods.

“Oh, God,” Pepper whines. 

Happy follows Alayna into the kitchen, “You are such a terrible liar.”

“The only thing I lied about was the fact he’s excited to see her. He still has no idea he has Alayna and not me,” Morgan states with a shrug. “Alayna and our Dad will be at The Boston Hotel for three days starting today. That’s not a lie.”

“Can’t believe I’m taking orders from a twelve year old.”

**[08.05.21**

**11:35 AM]**

**Alayna:**

Alayna walks in the lobby with Maria and her father after having breakfast, spotting Christine and her parents across the way. Her eyes darted across the room, looking for Morgan. 

Upon making her way to the family, Christine gives Tony a chaste kiss, “Hi, honey… Morgan, and Maria.”

Morgan and Maria almost give the same look of disgust at Christine. Maria recovers from the look of disapproval and says, “So, Christine. Is this your family?”

“Yes, you all finally meet,” Christine smiles, placing her hand in Tony’s. “Mom, Dad, this is my fiancé and love of my life, Anthony Stark.”

Christine’s mother gives a smile that is blatantly fake, “Hello, Anthony. It is so nice to meet you.” They shake hands. “My daughter has told me so much about you. My name is Michelle, but I’m sure you probably already know that.”

“Hi, it is great to meet you,” was all Tony said.

“And this,” Christine points to Alayna. “Is Tony’s  _ adorable _ daughter, Morgan.”

Alayna returns with the most painfully obvious fake smile and a small wave, “Hi there.”

“We’ve heard such wonderful things about you,  _ Maguna _ ,” Christine’s father says.

Alayna turns her head to see her father, with a hurt expression before looking back at Christine’s father, “Um, I’m kinda selective with who calls me that. Can you, uh, refrain from referring to me as such?”

Christine rolls her eyes, “People are going to call you whatever they want to.”

“Oh, I can’t control what you say out of my earshot,” Alayna states. “But I’d hope you’d have the human decency to understand and respect my boundaries in front of me, Christine. If not to be nice to me out of the  _ goodness _ of your little heart, for your fiancé. I think ‘treating his daughter nicely’ might be a quality he’s lookin’ for.”

She lets out a frustrated breath, “Anyway… lunch, 1:30? Yes?”

There’s a mutual agreement.

“Morgan. Christine and I are going to go up to the room for a second and then go tour the place we’re thinking for the reception. Call me if you need anything, okay?”, Tony asks.

“Okay, Dad,” Alayna nods, peering behind him as she tries to look for Morgan and Pepper. 

“Okay, Maguna,” Tony responds.

Alayna lets out a genuine smile at the nickname this time. 

**Pepper:**

“I’m going to go back up to the room for a second, is that okay?”, Morgan asks, bouncing on the tips of her toes as she awaits her mother’s answer. 

“Yeah, sure,” Pepper agrees. “Meet you back here at noon?”

Morgan hums before walking to the stairwell.

Pepper sends off an email for work before she looks up to see her ex-husband getting on an elevator with a woman practically attached to him. It felt like a punch in the gut to see.

But yet, he grows stiff when their eyes meet. His arm around the woman’s waist drops to his side and his mouth goes agape as if he wasn’t expecting to see her. 

The elevator door glides to a close, breaking their first eye contact in who knows how many years. 

**Alayna:**

“Dad and Lady Tremaine are downstairs looking at the reception hall thing,” Alayna says as she opens the door to Morgan’s hotel room. Coincidentally it's on the same hall as hers. “I gave Nonna the extra key to this room that you gave me and told her to come up here when possible.”

“What are we even supposed to do about them seeing each other?!”, Morgan asks. “Mom thinks Dad knows we switched places. Does he?”

“He still didn’t know earlier,” the youngest twin shakes her head. “I wanted to tell him. But it was too terrifying to try.”

Morgan barely can answer before Pepper walks in the room. “Morgan, you have some explaining to do—“ She spots both of them. “Alayna?”

“Present,” Alayna nods.

“I haven’t seen you in over two months because of this little scheme,” their mother rolls her eyes. “Can I get a hug?”

Alayna smiles before hugging her mother. “I missed you.”

“So I’ve heard,” Pepper says. “I missed you too.”

There’s a brief pause when Alayna sits back on an ottoman.

“ _ You two  _ have something you want to tell me?”, Pepper inquires. “‘Cause Morgan told me your father was expecting to see me. But the man I just saw getting on an elevator seemed totally shocked that we were in the same city, let alone the exact same hotel.”

“You saw Dad already?”, Alayna asks with wide eyes.

“Seems like it, yeah,” Pepper breathes out. 

“Did he seem… happy?”, Morgan asks.

“No, the man seemed completely dazed and stiff as if we were complete strangers and he only knew me from my company,” Pepper says, laying down on the couch. “Don’t you think I’ve thought about what it would be like to see your dad after all these years? Well, seeing him in a closing elevator while he’s wrapped around another woman’s arms is not exactly how I hoped it would be.”

“Are you okay?”, Happy walks in from a bedroom. 

“I just saw my ex for the first time since we separated and he looked as if he saw a ghost when our eyes met, so no,” Pepper sighs, pinching the bridge of her nose for a moment. 

“Alayna, your Dad—,” Maria walks in the room. “Pepper?”, Maria asks with wide eyes. 

“That would be me,” Pepper answers, looking at Tony’s mother. “Hello, Maria.”

“Are you alright?”, Maria asks.

“I just saw your son in the lobby and he looked at me as if I were his ghost of Christmas past. You tell me,” Pepper sighs. “I’m honestly shocked you don’t think I’m evil or something. I was the one who left first.”

“It was a two way street, not entirely your fault. You and I, and Tony, all know it didn’t have to end the way that it did,” Maria shakes her head. “But I don’t think you’re evil. Despite not being married to my son anymore, you will always be the mother of my granddaughters and I will always see you as my daughter-in-law. The only person who I don’t love unconditionally in my family is my own ex-husband… you and I both also know why he's the outlier.” Maria looks over at the eldest twin, “Speaking of my granddaughters.”

Morgan smiles at her Nonna before getting up and hugging her, “I missed you, Nonna.”

“I missed you too,” Maria murmurs before the two let go. 

Happy walks over to Maria and whispers something in her ear. She gives him a weird look. “Christine?”

“Is there something you four are keeping from me?”, Pepper asks.

“Uh,” Happy shakes his head no. “Not at all. Why?”

“Girls?”, Pepper looks toward them. 

“Daddy’s getting remarried,” Morgan blurts.

“Morgan!”, Alayna yelps. “Why’d you tell her?”

“I can’t lie! I told you that!”, the eldest twin raises her arms in surrender for a moment.

“He’s,  _ what _ ?”, Pepper raises her voice, the same hurt from the other day returning back.

“To Lady Tremaine, Mom. She’s so mean to me and just plain ol’ awful,” Alayna vents. “She’s not right for him at all. It’s  _ completely _ ridiculous!”

“What do I have to do with this?”, Pepper asks as Happy and Maria stand near the entryway with conflicting expressions. 

“The only way he won’t, is if he talks to  _ you  _ again,” Morgan mumbles.

“Oho,” Pepper nods as she stifles a fake laugh. “Not happening. I love your enthusiasm, girls, but I came here for one reason only. To switch you two back. That’s it. Tony and I have nothing in common…  _ anymore _ , that is. Keep dreaming.”

“But—“

“I don’t care if this woman isn’t right for him and you think I somehow am,” Pepper interrupts. “This isn’t The Parent Trap, life doesn’t work that way.”

“Alayna, can I talk to you for a minute? Outside?”, Maria breaks the awkward silence.

Alayna nods before walking out with her grandmother. “What?”

“Your Dad’s looking for ‘Morgan’,” Maria answers. “The reception hall had been booked and hasn’t been cleaned from an event this morning. I haphazardly told him that you were wandering around the other hallway for events and things, so I’d suggest you linger around there.”

**Tony:**

Tony’s well underway his second sweep of looking for his daughter in the other hallway that was lined with various ballrooms, when he sees Pepper again. And if he weren’t careful, he would’ve fallen into a decorative plant when he saw her then. 

The two meet each other’s eyes again and she looks almost bewildered, “Um.”

“Hey, Pep,” Tony breaks the awkward silence. “Do people still, um, call you that? Pepper, I mean.”

“The majority of the media does… so does Happy, your Mom apparently, and one of my brothers jokingly does… Chris does, not Shawn,” Pepper nods with a forced smile. “Hi.”

“I thought it was my imagination the first time, but… is there something going on here? You don’t seem so surprised to see me,” Tony wonders aloud. “But, uh, I’m completely lost. ‘Cause I haven’t seen or heard from you in what? eleven years? Did the universe malfunction and we’re back to 2009?”

“Um, well—,” Pepper barely gets out before their daughter walks into their views.

“Dad, I can explain why she’s here,” the preteen says. 

“Morgan, you know who this is?”, he baffles, slightly pointing at Pepper.

“Actually, yeah,” their daughter says, before she clears her throat and speaks again—her voice a little bit higher and there’s no longer a hint of a northern American dialect in her voice: “And I’m not Morgan.”

“I am,” the other twin steps into view, giving a small wave.

“Oh my God, wait—“, Tony blinks. He looks at Alayna, “You… you’re Alayna?”

“Mhm,” Alayna nods, she shows a nervous smile. 

“Both of you… I… wow,” Tony mumbles. “How did this happen?”

“Same camp, both of you are at fault for that one. Then, fate sent us to the same cabin, same room… one argument sent us to the Friendship Cabin and we came out on the other side realizing we were twins,” Alayna answers. “I wanted to know what having a real, loving dad was like so bad a-and Morgan wanted to meet Mom, so we just kinda… switched places.  _ Please _ don’t be mad.”

“Oh, Alayna, I’m not mad,” Tony says as tears brim, holding out his arms for her. She practically melts into her father’s loving embrace. “I’ve loved and missed you every single day of your life, you know. The last time I saw you, you were just starting to understand tummy time wasn’t cruel and unusual punishment. Now you’re about to be a teenager! I missed a lot, huh? I’m so sorry.”

“I missed you all my life, Dad,” Alayna murmurs as Tony kisses her forehead. The two separate.

“So I’ve had Alayna this whole time,” Tony baffles, looking at Morgan. “I haven’t seen you in two months, c’mere kiddo.”

Morgan gives her Dad a hug for the first time in two months.

“Love you, kid,” Tony says. 

“I love you too,” Morgan murmurs before stepping away. “Mom’s amazing, Dad, I don’t know how you ever let her go.”

Tony’s smile softens, as he looks at Pepper.  _ I don’t either. _

“Girls, do you think you could leave your father and I for a second so we can discuss—“, Pepper draws a circle between everyone with her pointer finger, “—this, alone?”

Alayna nods, after looking at Morgan. 

Morgan just smiles, “Take your time.” She then turns around with her sister and they find empty chairs to sit in a bit away in the lobby. 

“I can hardly believe it,” Tony says as he runs his fingers through his hair. “Seeing you, seeing them together again, I—“

“I know,” Pepper says nervously. “I’m—“

“Oh, there you are. Tony? I’ve been looking everywhere for you—“, Christine’s voice directs the ex-couple’s attention to her. Christine furrows her brow at the sight. “Um, who… who are you? ...wait. You—“

“Pepper Potts, yes,” Pepper quickly recovers from the awkwardness and introduces herself. “You seem familiar, can’t place why. You are?”

“Oh, geez. This is really a small world, huh?”, Tony shakes his head. “Not how I planned this day to go at all.”

“How small?”, Christine asks.

Alayna walks up to Christine, “Hi Christie.”

“Hello, Morgan,” Christine grumbles, glancing at her. 

“Hi!”, Morgan walks to the other side of her. 

“Hello—“, Christine glances over to the other twin and has a double take before she shrieks. “There’s  _ two  _ of them?!”

“Afraid so,” Morgan says.

“Don’t feel bad, we didn’t know until two months ago,” Alayna says with a knowing smile. “Oh, and I’m not Morgan. She is.” Alayna points to Morgan. 

“And this is our mother,” Morgan gives a sarcastic smirk. 

“Wait you two were married?”, Christine blinks. 

“It was a  _ long _ time ago,” Pepper shakes her head. 

“Oh, gee, this  _ is  _ a small world,” Christine struggles to say through gritted teeth.

“And getting smaller,” Tony mutters. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check out my socials for more fic updates and random insanity!  
> Twitter: aoskayla   
> Tumblr: akasharpiegirl


	9. Parent Trapped

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony and Pepper are set up on a date and are forced by their twins to talk it out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! This is probably one of my favorites chapters for the series.

**[6:27 PM]**

**Tony:**

“My Mom told me you wanted to discuss the girls?”, Tony asks his ex-wife, walking into the freshly cleaned conference hall where he and Christine were holding their wedding reception next week. Tony’s eyes linger over Pepper wearing  _ the  _ royal blue dress from the night that they first kissed and he struggled to keep it together. He mumbles: “Um, I, uh… wow.”

“Discuss the girls?”, Pepper asks, dumbfounded. She points to a table. “Morgan—or Alayna, I’m not too sure anymore—told me we were all having dinner together. Happy told me you were on your way and it would be here? I mean, I should’ve known that they’d set us up, there’s only two plates.”

And that’s when it happens, they see their twins shut the door and lock it from the outside. 

“Morgan, Alayna—“, Tony can barely say with a stern tone as he walks over to the door and tries to unlock it… failing to.

“We're not unlocking this door until you talk it out. There’s food in case it takes a while. Nonna made it,” one of the twins raises their voice, and neither parent is entirely sure which one said it. 

Tony sighs, turning around to his ex-wife, “I thought Disney movies were the only place you could find a door that only locks from the outside.” There’s a pause. “Maybe a sentient snowman can come from Arendelle and save us with his detachable carrot nose.”

Pepper snickers, “God, it’s unfortunate that our kids turned out smart.”

“Tell me about it,” Tony says. “I should’ve known... Morgan’s the worst liar. She would’ve completely fumbled trying to explain why she had a new American Girl doll with her once she came home all of the sudden if it actually were her. Didn’t happen with Alayna. Like, yeah, I was suspicious. But, you know. How did you find out?”

“Morgan kept hinting at it the day before, but it wasn’t until a day later when it really clicked. ‘Cause I had walked in the living room to see that Morgan was texting, who I can only assume was Alayna… since Alayna doesn’t have many friends,” Pepper recalls, snapping her fingers. “And then all of the sudden she just started screaming in  _ Italian _ , spotted me with this heartbroken look, and then she ran out to the pool. Wouldn’t stop when I asked ‘Alayna’ if she was okay.” She used finger quotes around Alayna’s name. “Alayna didn’t know a lick of Italian before meeting Morgan... Happy ended up going after her and then Morgan came clean once I returned. Didn’t tell me what got her upset, but she still came clean. I know now why… she doesn’t want her Daddy to get remarried, Tony. I don’t blame her either, thirteen year old me threw a whole fit when my Mom started dating again three years after my Dad died. I was  _ thirteen _ when she met my stepdad.”

“I just wish I knew how to fix it, you know?”, Tony says, running his fingers through his hair for a brief second. “I want my  _ daughters _ to like her.”

“They’ll warm up to her,” Pepper assures. “It takes a bit, but they will. It took a whole year after my Mom got remarried for me to like my stepdad. Even longer to call him Dad instead of by his first name.”

He lets out a deep breath, “I hope you’re right, Pep.”

Pepper tries to say something before abruptly pursing her lips. 

“You recognize that song?”, Tony asks, hearing the song they danced to during their reception way back in 2005.

“Uh huh,” Pepper says with wide eyes. “It’s been awhile, I always turn it when it comes on. Just easier not to think about our wedding, you know? Not so easy to do when your daughters are trying to set you up with your ex.”

He gives a sympathetic nod, before glancing at the door for a moment. 

“The quicker we look like we’re getting along, the quicker we get out of here,” Tony mumbles, holding out his left hand for her. “You want to dance? Make it like we’re having just a little fun?”

“No, I, uh…”, Pepper struggles to get out, looking toward the door, spotting one of her kids not-so-subtly spying on them. “Fine, okay.”

She takes his hand in hers and wraps her right arm around his upper arm. 

It genuinely took him a second to realize it was 2021 and not 2003 as she held onto his hand. _That feeling. Wow, I haven’t felt that in awhile. Even with… no,_ _I can’t._

They dance, the only noise coming from the speaker that was playing the middle of the chorus of their first dance song and their breathing. 

Pepper is dodging glances from Tony as she tries to keep her composure. 

“Is this making you uncomfortable?”, Tony inquires once the second verse comes.

“Oh, no. Not at all! ‘Cause everyday I forget to wear deodorant on the days we exchange our daughters back and almost have an anxiety attack in my hotel room when I realize that you don’t even know I am supposed to be at the same hotel as you in front of my  _ own  _ kids... then end up being trapped in a room and dancing with my  _ ex-husband _ to our first dance song because those very same preteens are desperate to see their parents have heart eyes toward each other again,” Pepper spews, sarcasm evident.

“I’m sorry,” he sighs. “But if it’s any consolation, you smell nice, you look great.”

“Oh, God,” she shakes her head. 

Tony’s face scrunches up before speaking up, “Is it odd that I can’t even remember what happened between us anymore? I remember you leaving, but not much of what led up to it.”

“Repressed memories,” Pepper states, hearing the chorus sound again. “I remember bits and pieces. Not very fond of what I can recall. The fight that caused us to separate… goodness. It was so stupid and childish. Sometimes I wish you would’ve come after me that night.”

“I didn’t realize you wanted me to come after you,” he frowns. “I wanted to, though.”

“Is that so?”

“Y-Yeah,” Tony struggles to say. “My Mom constantly gives me crap for not following my gut.”

She nods with a smile, “Always loved Maria.”

“She loves you too,” Tony says with humor in his voice. “She wouldn’t stop talking about you when I got engaged. ‘Why didn’t you just fix things with Pepper’ and ‘Tony, you know Pepper is the best for you’ were common phrases from her throughout the first week or so after I told her about the engagement.”

Pepper stifles a laugh, “Of course.”

They step together in time with the music. 

Tony glances over to the door again about a minute later, spotting one of his tweens attempting to dodge away from his view. “I’m starting to understand how my daughter’s cat and all of the other antisocial cats at the shelter felt when I caved in and let Morgan adopt one for her tenth birthday.” 

“Oh my, you got Morgan a kitten? You’re such a softie,” Pepper actually laughs. “What’s their name?”

“Calypso, named after the leap in dance if I recall correctly,” Tony answers. “She’s a calico. Around three years old now.”

“Alayna loves cats,” Pepper shakes her head. “I still won’t let her get one, but I know I won’t hear the end of her pleading now that she lived with one for two days.”

“Oh, come on! Have a little heart,” Tony raises his brow as he stifles a laugh. “They’re not  _ that  _ bad. Well, it depends on the personality. But Calypso is pretty tame unless she gets a bad vibe from someone.”

The song ends as Pepper’s stomach involuntarily grumbles before she can respond. 

“There’s food for us,” Tony suggests as he looks over at the table. 

She nods as she steps away from Tony and the loss of her touch almost pains him. 

About ten minutes go by.

“How do we want to go about this? It’s not like we can switch the girls back every couple of weeks or days. We’re talking two completely different coasts, not thirty minutes apart,” Pepper speaks up after taking a sip of her water. “This was the entire reason we did it the way we did.”

“Not necessarily,” Tony disagrees, his tone glum. “We did it this way so we’d never have to see each other again. I remember that part clearly. Which obviously—“ He points between him and her after setting down his fork. “—didn’t exactly work.”

“Oh,” she frowns.

“Does Alayna have off all of Thanksgiving week? Morgan does, but I know all schools aren’t the same.”

**[08.06.21**

**11:11 AM]**

**Pepper:**

“I get Alayna during her fall break. You have Morgan during hers. I’ll have the girls the first half of thanksgiving, send them to you the rest of the week,” Tony recalls. “I send Alayna back on Sunday.”

Pepper nods, “First half of Christmas with me, second half with you. We’ll spend New Year’s Eve and Day together since it’s their birthday.”

“Easter, you,” Tony says as Pepper pulls her luggage handle up. “Winter and spring break, similar deal.”

“Sounds right,” she agrees, before their twins walk up to them in different outfits than they had on during breakfast. 

“Girls, this is not funny. What are you—“

**Morgan:**

“We talked and we decided we were being totally robbed,” Morgan says, folding her arms.

“Oh?”, both parents ask.

“We want to go on the camping trip,” Alayna says, bouncing on the tips of her toes as she awaits their reactions.

“What camping trip?”, Pepper shoots Tony a look.

Tony sighs, “The one I take Morgan on every summer before school’s back in session.”

“Dad, it’s only fair,” Alayna says. “You promised.”

“I did?”

“Yes,” both girls said simultaneously.

“Alayna, this is ridiculous. Plans change,” Pepper shakes her head. “Go out your other clothes on. We’ve got to go.”

“How can you be one hundred percent sure I’m Alayna?”, Alayna asks. “Oh, and isn’t it your private jet? Can’t it leave whenever you want?”

Tony stifles a laugh, “I’ve asked that question before.” He quickly recovers, though. “Alayna.”

“Yes?”, both girls speak up.

Tony looks at Pepper before walking closer to his girls and bends down to their eye level. He looks at both girls before standing up and pointing at Morgan, “This one’s Morgan. I’m positive.” 

Morgan’s eyes widen, “I hope you’re right, Dad! You wouldn’t want to send the wrong daughter all the way back to California.”

“Would you?”, Alayna asks with a mischievous smile. Their voices sound nearly identical.

Tony blinks, looking between them.

“Here’s our proposal,” Alayna steps forward. Morgan steps next to her.

“We all go back to Dad’s, pack up our stuff, and all four of us go on the camping trip,” Morgan says. 

“Oh, no way,” Pepper shakes her head. 

“But then, we’ll tell you who’s Morgan and who’s Alayna,” Alayna finishes. “It won’t be  _ that _ bad.”

“Or I take one of you back to California with me whether you two like it or not,” Pepper counters.

“Do you really want to take the risk of taking the wrong kid home again?”, Morgan asks.

“Fine,” Pepper grumbles. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading! As a reminder, chapter uploads are now on hold until tomorrow (10/12) so I may get some rest! Remember, you all are deserving of rest too! 
> 
> Hang with me on my socials!   
> Twitter: aoskayla   
> Tumblr: akasharpiegirl


	10. Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The end of summer camping trip with Tony, his daughters, and another (not so) special guest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading and the continued support!  
> I think today will be the day that the series is complete! (Minus the epilogue of course.)

**[2:45 PM]**

**Tony:**

“Kids, got your things in the back?”, he walks out of the front door with his own duffel. He had just finished posting the prerecorded lecture on his course homepage for his students to view over the weekend before coming outside. 

“Yep,” the twin—who he swears is Morgan—says.

“What on Earth is going on, Tony?”, Christine asks. “I thought your ex and her daughter left.”

“Nope,” he shakes his head. “It’s part of the deal. Camping trip with my girls and their Mom before two of ‘em head back out west.”

“What are you? The Brady Bunch?”, Christine cringes.

“If it makes you feel any better, I’m not that fine with this situation either,” Pepper walks up beside her. “If you ask me, it’s a little weird knowing I have to share a tent with my ex-husband for a few days.”

Tony’s eyes widen and he scratches the back of his head.

“Thank you!”, Christine exclaims. 

“You know what? Tony, why don’t you and Christine go with the girls? Not me,” Pepper suggests. “I’ll stay back until you all return and it’ll give you two some time together before the big day.”

“Oh no, I don’t have to go,” Christine shakes her head. “I’m not the biggest fan of camping and the outdoors… especially in a tent.”

“I’m not fond of it either… I haven’t walked a trail since I was in college, but this is your chance to really get to know Morgan and Alayna before they’re half yours,” Pepper shrugs. “In two weeks you’ll officially be their stepmom, so.”

Tony sighs, “I—“

“Mama, no! That’s not the plan,” one of the girls whines, interrupting their dad.

“Plans change,” Pepper says.

“Be nice,” Tony gives the girls a stern look before getting in the front seat. 

Christine shoots him a look of uncertainty, “Give me fifteen.”

More like twenty minutes pass when Christine sits in the front passenger seat and they start to drive off. And Tony’s fairly certain he hears his mother say, “I’d pay big money to see that woman climb a trail,” in Italian when he does.

————

**6:32 PM:**

**Morgan:**

They’re halfway toward the end of the trail and they’ve had to stop five times already—because Christine won’t stop taking a moment to breathe… which only enables Morgan to drop even more crap in Christine’s backpack without her knowledge. 

“Come on, Christie, it’s not that far,” Alayna says. “Only half a mile left.”

Christine scoffs.

Tony shoots his daughter a look, “Give her a break, kid. She’s never done this before.”

“Then she shouldn’t have come,” Alayna shrugs. 

“I heard that,” Christine says as she puts her backpack back on and stands up. “I think… I think I’m ready to go.”

“Alright, I’ll go ahead and try to see if I can see the spot from here,” Tony says before walking off.

Christine turns around, “Don’t think I don’t see past you two’s angelic little faces. I know you two are playing tricks on me. And if you do it again, I’ll make sure both of your lives are absolutely miserable from the second I say ‘I do’.”

“Okay, Lady Tremaine,” Morgan mumbles under her breath as Christine turns back toward Tony.

A few more harmless tricks are played— putting a lizard on her backpack strap, giving her bad tips on surviving out in the wilderness, and even offering her insect repellent that was actually attracting them—and they make it to the top.

“Girls?”, Tony called over to them once they finished pitching their tent, his voice sounded stern. Christine walks away from him. “Can I talk to you two, please?”

“Oh gosh,” Morgan whines before she and her sister walk over to him. 

“Yeah, Dad?”, the twins say within seconds of each other.

“What’s... up?”, Morgan asks, almost shocked when she sees Tony’s expression. She recognized that look, he only ever showed it when she was in trouble. 

“Christine just told me you two have been messing with her this whole trip, that true?”, Tony inquires.

“They were harmless tricks,” Morgan mumbles. 

Alayna gives her a look of disapproval, “Why’d you tell him?!”

He sighs, running his hand through his hair, “Okay, then! Here’s how it goes. I know you two don’t like Christine, you’ve made it abundantly clear that you don’t. But she’s still human and deserves basic human decency from you both. I’m not a big fan of the whole punishment thing, but I taught Morgan to be civil with people when she disagrees with them and I’m fairly certain your Mom taught Alayna the same… so I’m not entirely sure where the disconnect is.” He folds his arms. “So, Morgan, whichever you are… you’re not going to the team intensive next week. Grounded until next Friday, no phone when we get back. Are we clear?”

“What?! Dad, that’s not fair!”, Morgan yelps. “I don't have a good chance to get a spot on the team if I don’t show, it’s studio rules! Intensive kids get first pick! And I was supposed to start as a junior choreographer this season!”

“I know that, and too bad,” Tony nods. “Which is why you should’ve thought about it when you were messing with Christine. If you’re meant to be on the team this year, they’ll have a drop out before classes start in September. If not, you’re recreational instead of company this season. Might be good for you anyway. Deal with it. Are we clear, yes or no?”

Morgan grumbles under her breath, “Yes, Dad.”

“Now Alayna,” Tony looks at the younger twin. “I’m going to go a bit easier on you because I’m not the  _ main  _ parent in charge of you all the time. But, currently, you’re technically under my roof. So, here’s the deal… I’ll tell Mom about this when we return home in two days and it’ll be up to her if she does anything about it. As long as you don’t pull anything on Christie again, or I’ll drive out to where there’s cell service and tell her right then and there. Cool?”

“Yes sir,” Alayna speaks up softly. “Sorry.”

**[9:03 PM]**

“At least you don’t have to go to the wedding,” Morgan scrunched up her face. “Just imagine the bridesmaid dresses! Heck, I won’t even be one. I’ll break the record for oldest flower girl! I feel like I’m gonna need eye bleach when I see those dresses. I mean, I already need glasses. Why not get the job done that way?”

“It can’t be  _ that _ bad,” Alayna says sympathetically.

“Oh geez, I can hear it now. Presenting the happy couple Mr. Anthony and Christine Stark!”, Morgan whines. “I hate it. So freaking much.” She pulls a throw pillow out from under her head and yells into it.

“Morgan,” Alayna says with urgency after having a laughing fit.

Morgan drops the throw pillow onto her stomach, “Wha—“

“I heard yelling,” Tony says at the entrance of hers and Alayna’s tent. “What’s up?”

“We’re commiserating and she doesn’t want you to get married,” Alayna throws her under the bus. “I mean, neither do I. But if it’s going to happen the way it’s looking right now, I won’t have to deal with her much compared to Morgan.”

“Hm,” Tony hums, meeting Morgan’s eyes with sympathy. “May I sneak in there between you two?”

The twins shrug. 

“You don’t want me to get married?”, Tony inquires, finding a snug spot in between them and their sleeping bags. “Last I checked, you wanted me to get back together with Mom. So which is it, do you want me to get married or no? Getting back together with your Mom equates to marriage. Or is me getting married and you approving, a case by case basis?”

“Case by case basis. I’m just scared things are going to change, Dad,” Morgan says, feeling tears threaten to fall.

“What do you mean by ‘change’?”, Tony inquires. “Alayna said the same when she was posing as you. Care to share with me what you’re actually thinkin’?”

“I-I don’t... I don’t want to lose you. I just can’t shake this feeling that it won’t be the same if Christine becomes my... my stepmom. Every time I think about it. I feel like she’s going to ship me off to some foreign country for a boarding school and... and I’ll never see you again until I graduate if I do one tiny thing to tick her off once you two tie the knot! And then you’re just going to be A-Okay with it. I just don’t want to walk on a wire when it comes to communicating with her or you,” Morgan says, her voice was shaky.

“Boarding school isn’t that bad,” Tony jokes. 

“That’s a lie and you know it,” Alayna says. “Out of the two days I spent with you, I heard you complain about the academy at least five times.”

“How many during the lecture?”

“Twice,” Alayna answered. 

“Dad!”, Morgan yelps. “You’re missing the point.”

“Okay... continue,” Tony says.

“I don’t even know her, Daddy! I don’t want to share my Dad with someone I barely know! Did you learn anything from Frozen? She dodges questions about herself when I try to get to know her. She did the same with Alayna. So don’t think we haven’t tried! She gives off this weird vibe that I can’t place. Like she’s only after our money or something! At... At least with Mom, I know she wouldn’t send me off to boarding school all the way in Japan if I get annoying,” Morgan vents, she feels tears break free from her eyes. She can’t make them stop now. She takes a sharp breath in, trying to talk through her jumbled thoughts that have been buried for God knows how long. “I-I know it’s not about me, but... it’s gonna... it’s gonna take me a long while to be okay with this—to like her, to see you as the Dad I thought I knew again—to trust you like I... like I used to. If you don’t... don’t hear out my concerns. I just want… I wanna be heard. Kids are the best judges of character, D-Dad. Like, do you even truly _like_ her?”

Morgan swears she sees some sort of epiphany appear on her Dad’s face after she says that.

He lets out a long sigh, holding out both of his hands for his daughters. Morgan hesitates to, but she places her shaky left hand in Tony’s right. Alayna was quick to hold his. “So you’re telling me it’s her and losing your trust or let her go and keep your trust?”, he asks. 

“I-I guess so. At least for me. It’s always been easy to talk to you, but since this… not so much… doesn’t help that I’m kinda mad that you didn’t tell me I had a sister. You really can’t blame me for feeling the way I do,” Morgan mumbles after shooting a drained look to Alayna. She watches her Dad’s facial expressions closely through watery eyes then. She was terrified for his answer. What if he did choose a romantic relationship she wasn’t keen on over his own daughters?

“In that case, I’d choose you both any day,” Tony assures, and he says it with  _ ease _ . “I wouldn’t ever want to lose your trust or the bond you and I have...” he kisses the side of Morgan‘s forehead. She barely reacts. He looks at Alayna. “...and the one we’re starting to form, Lanie. ‘Cause I love both of you immensely. If we could’ve fixed mine and your mother’s relationship and kept you two together, we would’ve. I promise you. I’m really sorry that I never told you. Big lapse of judgement on my part.”

Morgan lets go of her Dad’s hand and wraps her arms around his waist, “T-Thank you.” 

Tony lets out a sympathetic hum as he cradles his eldest’s frame in his arms, “I love you too much, kid. Promise.”

“Tony?”, Christine’s voice comes from outside of the tent, causing Morgan to go still like a statue in her Dad’s arms when she hears it. 

“It’s gonna be okay,” Tony says quietly, rubbing Morgan’s back when he hears her let out a sniffle. He speaks up, “With the girls.”

Morgan opens her eyes, spotting Christine at the front of their tent.

“What’s wrong with her?”, Christine raises a brow at the crying preteen.

“Nothing that concerns you,” Tony answers, his voice stern. 

“Oh, so now you’re not on my side either?”, Christine scoffs.

“I’ve never really been blatantly on your side,” Tony attempts to shrug. He notes that Morgan isn’t crying anymore. “My daughters asked me a question that made me take a good look at my soul… and what I know about yours. So tell me the truth, is there a reason outside of your so-called-admiration that you want to marry me so soon?”

Christine’s mouth falls open at the question. “What are you talking about, another reason? Did those _brats_ tell you I was after your money? Oh my God, if we’re playing that game, it’s them or me, Tony,” Christine breathes out. “Take your pick.”

Tony gapes at her choice of words before he states oh-so-casually, “Them.”

“What did you just say?”, Christine raises her brow.

“T-H-E-M,” Tony spells out. “My daughters, my twins... I don’t know how else to say it. You’ve honestly got a whole lot of nerve thinking that I was gonna be alright with you taking everything over once we married. Oh, and, using the term ‘brat’ as a description of anyone doesn’t really fly with me… so there’s that, too.”

The next thing Morgan sees is Christine taking her ring off her finger and throwing it at Tony. It doesn’t go far, it lands at Tony’s feet. The woman storms off then. The trio can hear her in the distance yelling at her phone for an Uber of sorts.

“You realize you’re still grounded until you go off to college right?”, Tony jokes.

“I thought it was just a week,” Morgan mumbles, now resting her head against his shoulder as the father-daughters trio sat together. Tony’s left arm was around Alayna’s shoulder.

“I’m just teasing, kid,” Tony  _ smiles _ . 

“You’re not mad?”, Alayna asks. 

“Not anymore, no,” their dad says. “Your old man’s far past the marriage thing anyway. What was I thinking?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check out my socials and keep up with me!  
> Twitter: aoskayla  
> Tumblr: akasharpiegirl


	11. It’s “See You Later”, Not “Goodbye”.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The few days that follow the camping trip before Pepper and Alayna return home are quiet and slow. Which leaves time for a lot of complicated thoughts and feelings to process.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last we left off, Christine and Tony called off the engagement. Lets see what happens next.

**[08.07.21**

**2:23 PM]**

**Pepper:**

A car pulls up in Tony’s home, where she had been staying at for these two days. She walks outside and down the front porch steps before spotting said car.

The girls and Tony both emerge from it a moment later.

“Why are you back so soon? I thought you weren’t coming back until tomorrow,” Pepper inquires. She looks around. “Where’s Christine at?”

“We’ve been grounded until both of us go off to college,” Morgan grumbles, grabbing her duffel from the trunk. 

“Why?”, Pepper asks as she tries to contain her laughter. 

“We played a few harmless tricks on Christine and Dad got mad,” Alayna shrugs, meeting her mother at the porch. 

“Harmless? She tried to throw her engagement ring at my head when I called it off,” Tony questions, behind his girls. He looks between them and says in a half joking-half serious tone, “Go to your room, now.”

“Did you actually ground them until college?”, Pepper asks once their girls are out of earshot. “That’s like six years, Tony.”

“No, it was a joke,” Tony shakes his head. “But I did ground Morgan for a week. Didn’t know how you’d react, so I didn’t really do anything about Alayna’s participation.”

“Ah,” Pepper nods. “I’m sorry about you and Christine.”

“Eh, it’s alright,” he sighs. “I value my daughters’ trust more than a short relationship that tried to become ‘till death do us part’ too quickly.”

“That phrase rarely holds its meaning anymore anyway,” Pepper sighs with him.

“You’re not wrong,” he says, his voice sad. He quickly recovered. “Anyway, you know where my Mom is? I need to break the news to her. I think she’ll have a ball hearing that my engagement was called off.”

“Grocery store about an hour ago,” Pepper recalls. “At least I think that’s correct. I really only know that Happy went back to California when Alayna and I were supposed to. He’s getting things ready for our actual departure on Monday morning.”

**[9:56PM]**

**Morgan:**

“Skip,” the eldest twin sets down a red Uno skip card. “Skip again.” She sets down a green skip. “Skip, reverse, reverse, and draw four, yellow.” She sets down a blue skip, one blue reverse, a green reverse, and a draw four right after. “Oh, and, Uno.”

“That’s not fair,” Alayna whines, setting down her stack of cards when Morgan sets down her remaining yellow seven on the discard deck.

“You were the one who hit me with like five draw twos in the beginning,” Morgan shrugs as she picks up the cards to shuffle them again. “Don’t be a sore loser, Lanie.”

“Rematch?”, Alayna asks.

The girls’ eyes linger to the cracked door when they hear someone coming up the stairs. It’s their Dad, and Morgan’s 95% sure that she just saw him fixing his hair in the bathroom mirror before turning around toward her room. 

“Hey, Dad!”, Morgan waves with her free hand as he pushes open the door. 

“Where are you going?”, Alayna inquires. 

He raises his brow at the question before saying, “To none of your concern.” There’s a pause from him as he glances around the room. He haphazardly points to Morgan then. “Oh, Morgan, I’m cutting back your punishment. Remind me about your phone on Monday morning and you can go to intensive.”

“I can?”, Morgan questions.

“That’s what I said, yeah,” he nods. “I now get why you did those things and realized I’d most likely do the same if I were you.”

“Thank you?”, Morgan holds in a laugh.

“Is there anything else you two need from me?”, he asks.

Both girls shake their heads as Morgan sets down the newly shuffled deck of cards in between her and her sister. 

“Wait,” Morgan speaks up. “My pointe shoes are dead from the spring show and I don’t have a new pair yet.”

“Well you’re out of luck until maybe Tuesday,” Tony says with a stifled laugh. “I’ll order some tonight but there’s no way they’ll get here by Monday. You’ll have to go without them.”

“Thanks,” Morgan mumbles. 

“Anything else?” There’s no response. “Alright then,” he lets out a soft smile. “Get some sleep soon, okay? Goodnight, girls. Love you.” 

“Goodnight, Dad,” Alayna says with a confused look on her face. 

“Love you too,” Morgan smiles at her Dad. 

He closes the door behind him and they both hear him walk down the stairs. 

The two girls give each other a look of suspicion once they can tell their Dad is downstairs.

“Do you think—”

“Don’t jinx it,” Morgan interrupts, forming a fingers crossed symbol again with her left hand as she deals the playing cards with her right. 

**Tony:**

“It seems like Alayna’s as competitive as you,” Tony says as he walks into the living room. Calypso jumps off the couch as he does and runs into the kitchen. He wants to mention the cat to Pepper, but he continues with his original train of thought. “The girls were playing Uno upstairs, it’s not that random of a statement.”

Pepper looks at him and lets out a slight laugh, “By competitive do you mean whining about how my loss is unfair and then I get offended when I’m called a sore loser?”

“Your words, not mine,” Tony shrugs. He sits down on the adjacent loveseat from where his ex sat on his couch.

“You would never be able to tell they just discovered each other two months ago,” Pepper baffles. “They’re closer to each other than I have ever been with my sister. Seems like me and Amanda always got in petty fights every five minutes when I still lived at home. I mean, Chris and I fought more often than my sister and I did… but the sister fights really hit a nerve with my mom rather than the latter.”

“Well they went into their friendship not knowing they were related, let alone sisters,” Tony points out. “Before long I feel like I’m gonna have to start fielding petty feuds about who knows what when I have them both with me during Alayna’s fall break.”

Pepper snickers, “Good luck.” She shakes her head briefly. “They’re really going to test your conflict resolution skills. At least, I know the pair of siblings I babysat in college did for me… and Amanda and I tested my mom’s.”

“ _Fun_ ,” a look of pure fear flashes across Tony’s face.

There’s a quietness that travels through the room for a moment.

“What’s wrong?”

“Oh, um,” Tony lets out a sharp breath as he abruptly stopped fidgeting with his hands. “It’s nothing.” 

Pepper shoots him a skeptical look, “Just because I haven’t seen you in twelve years doesn’t simply negate the ten whole years I spent getting to know you beforehand. I know you well enough to know when something’s off. What’s the matter, Tony?”

“It’s just—,” Tony pauses. “—this.”

“This?”

“This whole weekend,” Tony facepalms for a moment before he lets his hand rest on the loveseat arm. “Seeing you for the first time since 2009, seeing Alayna so grown, seeing our daughters together for the first time since then… I… It feels so surreal… fake, almost. Like I’m going to wake up one day and realize it was an excruciatingly long dream of mine… and I don’t want it to be my subconscious tormenting me.”

Pepper gives a small nod, “If it makes you feel any better, it didn’t feel real to me either. Not at first, at least. It seems that I just had a longer time to grasp onto the understanding than you did.”

“I can only imagine what I looked like when I saw you from that elevator,” Tony cringes. “I was completely dumbfounded.”

“You looked as if you saw the ghost of your Christmas past,” she jokes quietly.

“Are you really that far off, though?”, Tony asks. 

Pepper shakes her head, her tousled ponytail falling over her left shoulder as she did. She glances at the rug under the coffee table and kicks her left barefoot into the soft fabric—a nervous twitch, Tony presumed—before she looks at him with a look Tony can’t quite place. She takes a shaky breath, “I don’t bite, you know. You seem lonely over there all by yourself.”

Tony stifles a nervous laugh and his eyes go wide. Then, swallows hard. “You sure about that?”

“Just because we’re _divorced_ doesn’t mean we can’t sit and have a normal conversation, Tony,” Pepper says, patting the cushion next to her with her right hand.

“That word,” Tony mumbles. “It still hurts.”

“I’m sorry,” Pepper sighs as he reluctantly sits next to her. There’s maybe an inch or two between them. 

“The past is in the past,” Tony shrugs as he looks at the ground in an attempt to not look at his ex. He was nervous, and he was wracking his brain as to why. He could feel Pepper’s gaze on him as he rested his arms over his knees.

“What’re you thinking?”, Pepper prods carefully.

Tony looks at her— _her and the way she spoke with elegance, concern, and kindness… and he sees the way her strawberry blonde bangs frame her face and peppered freckles that lined her nose just perfectly andandand_ —and is about to say something to her, when he abruptly stops himself because he feels it: a cacophony of complicated feelings surface in the core of his heart and overtake his brain. That feeling... it came the second he saw her again in the hotel, but he kept pushing it away. Tony couldn’t push it away anymore now… for there wasn’t a girl he was involved with any longer, so it only makes sense that his heart took the first chance to break through. And so his heart whispered to his brain that he missed Pepper… he still loved the woman he fell helplessly in love with all those years ago. But did she still love him, too? 

He takes in a shaky breath and shuts his mouth when the realization floods over him and tries to recover. He notices he’s fidgeting again. _She can’t know. It would ruin everything for the girls._ “Um, I… uh, how’s CEO-ing going?” 

She cocks her eyebrow at the question, “Seriously? That’s what you’re thinking?”

“Yeah, seriously,” Tony nods, lying through his teeth. “My business days went out the window a _long_ time ago. Single Dad life and professing just kinda… forged new habits after a while. Just curious.”

“In terms of the company,” Pepper says with confidence. “It’s going good. We’re supposed to be rolling new products next month. But production is being kinda wonky…” She takes a breath, her voice being infiltrated by a melancholic tune this time. “Personally, it’s kinda meh. Going through the motions, type deal. Mainly because I just get tired of arguing with businessmen who think they’re above me because of their gender. It’s like a once in a blue moon deal where I actually feel 100% happy to be a part of it. When we send a kid to college with the September Foundation scholarship or… seeing positive results from the study I signed a grant for that related to childhood cancer research. But in one ear I hear ‘retire if you feel called’ and then in the other someone is saying ‘mom guilt, you are overreacting’. I’ve already moved all the work that I can to home, so I can overcome the guilt I know I have and spend as much time as I can with Alayna… but it’s still hard.”

It’s quiet again for a second as both appear lost in thought. 

“Plus, it’s so hard to keep the press and paparazzi out of Alayna’s life,” Pepper rolls her eyes. “You wouldn’t believe the amount of photos, gossip columns, and who knows what else I’ve had to get taken down just so Lanie can have a semi normal life if I told you.”

“Well, you... you’re the best thing that’s ever happened to that company,” Tony compliments. “It’d be a shame to lose you, but you’ve got to take care of yourself. If you’re overworked, take a step back to look at the big picture and see if there’s an option calling your name this time. There’s gotta be a compromise in there somewhere if you don’t want to completely step away like I did. You don’t have to stay stuck there.” He pauses. “I’m sorry about Alayna, that must be hard.” 

He doesn’t realize that there’s a look of longing on his face after he stops talking and he looks at her.

“Are you sure you’re fine?”, Pepper changes the subject. 

Tony’s eyes widen again, and he’s thankful a yawn escapes him then. “Just tired.”

“Then go get sleep,” Pepper suggests with a sympathetic smile. 

“I’m planning to soon,” Tony nods, standing up.

She yawns then, “Ah. Yawns, contagious little creatures.” Tony’s halfway to the kitchen when she crosses over to the guest room. “Goodnight, Tony.”

“Goodnight, Pep,” he mumbles and she vacated the living room. He steps backwards into the kitchen and is about to turn around to pour himself a glass of water or something when—

“You like her still, don’t you?”

“Oh my God, Mom!”, he whisper-yells as he turns around. He felt like a teenager again when he said that. “How long have you been here?”

“The whole time,” Maria stifles a laugh. “Water, same as you.” She points to the half-full water pitcher that Tony now held in his hand. “I was already in the kitchen when you came down and the floor is creaky in the foyer… I didn’t want to intrude, so I stayed.”

He shoots her a look of skepticism before he picks up a glass from the cupboard and sets it down on the counter.

“Look, I’m not gonna meddle in your love life, Tony. But if you still like her, don’t let her go like the first time. You’ll never know if you don’t ask her. Please?”, Maria says as her son pours the water in the glass. “I just want to see you happy, mio figlio.”

“I know,” he sighs upon setting down the pitcher. 

**[08.09.21**

**9:05 AM EST]**

**Morgan:**

“I’m going to miss you,” she says as she hugs onto her sister.

“I’m going to miss you too,” Alayna mumbles before stepping back. “Remember, let’s try for FaceTime once a week. I know it’s not the same, but…”

Morgan sighs, “Yeah. Bright side, only sixty three days until your fall break!”

“I’m counting down the days, believe me,” Alayna assured her. 

Morgan glances at her Dad then, and he nods toward her Mother with a conflicted expression. Alayna walks over to their Dad.

She turns around and hugs her Mom. She blinks back tears as she does.

“You know I love you, right?”, Pepper asks as she cradles Morgan’s head. “I’m going to miss you, kiddo.”

Morgan steps away and answers a second later, “I love you and I’ll miss you too.”

She turns around to see the interaction between her Dad and her sister come to an end.

Morgan walks back over to her Dad and finds her safe space in his arms as they watch two members of their family get in a car with Happy and leave. Maria stands next to her son and rubs his back in a comforting manner as the car drives off. 

They stand there for a bit in silence when Tony just goes eerily still. He lets go of his daughter’s hand and mumbles shakily, “Maguna, why don’t you… uh, go get your stuff ready so I can… I can take you to the studio in a bit?”

“Um, sure?”, Morgan nods as he quickly walks in the house. She and Maria exchange a look of intrigue before Morgan runs upstairs.

Ten minutes pass and Morgan finds herself opening the door to her Dad’s home office. “Dad, I’m ready to go—“

That’s when she sees it. A confirmation email regarding plane tickets departing from BOS going to LAX that was departing in two hours was pulled up on his laptop. There was a smaller window pulled up that showed a sent email that said ‘Family emergency came up over the weekend. I hope that I’ll be able to make it back by Wednesday. If you have any questions regarding the review or if you couldn’t make it to the previous exam and scheduled a time to take it tomorrow during office hours, please shoot me an email and I’ll get back to you when I can.’ There were various review documents attached. 

“Do _not_ tell Alayna, Morgan,” Tony’s eyes met Morgan’s in shock. 

“I—“

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This series has allowed me to work on character’s inner dialogue and thought processes, and I’m so happy with one particular snippet of such in this chapter here. I hope you like it too!
> 
> Chat with me on my socials!  
> Twitter: aoskayla  
> Tumblr: akasharpiegirl


	12. Do You Believe In Magic?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony and Morgan fly to visit some very important people in their lives.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last we left off, Tony booked a flight to Los Angeles, California.

**[1:08 PM PST]**

**Alayna:**

“I’m sorry, baby girl,” Pepper says, embracing her daughter upon their return to their home. “I know you and Morgan really wanted your Dad and I to get back together. You’ll get to see them in a couple months. I know it’s not the same, but…”

“It’s okay,” Alayna sighs as Pepper briefly runs her fingers through her daughter’s hair. The mother and her daughter let go. “I’m going to get changed and go downstairs to get some exercise. I’ve missed almost four months because of my injury and camp combined, so…”

Pepper nods, “Okay. Let me know if you need anything? I’ll have J keep tabs on you once you’re down there in case something happens, but if you need anything else just holler.”

**[4:19 PM PST]**

Alayna finds her balance as she slides her right foot out slightly in front of her on the balance beam. She goes through the steps in her mind before following through in real time. Alayna had been attempting to regain her front walkover skill on beam that had dissipated over the summer due to her lack of exercising... for at least thirty minutes at this point and had high hopes for this run through. Her hands grasp the beam and she watches her hands as Alayna kicks her left leg over and lifts herself into a temporary handstand. The left leg lands on the beam and her right comes almost instantly after. She’s in the process of lifting her head up slowly to balance herself when the doorbell rings through the house, stealing her attention. Her head shoots up and her balance falters. She stumbles and falls into the pit of foam blocks, back first.

Alayna grumbles as she sits up and struggles to swim through the sea of blue and red foam, she finally pushes herself out of the pit and up onto her feet a moment later. Upon making it past the springboard floor, she slides on her sweatpants and a cringey athletic tank top over her leotard before grabbing her water bottle from the tiny locker station off to the side.

“J, do you by chance know who’s at the door and is Mom getting it?”, Alayna asks just before she gets to the door to the stairwell that leads to the main floor from the basement. “I kinda wanna yell at whoever it is that scared me.”

“Still running facial recognition and audio recording updates on the front door due to you and your sister’s little scheme and those functions are currently offline, Lanie,” JARVIS informs her. “Your Mother is currently on her way to get the door if you would like to stay back.”

Alayna ignores JARVIS’ suggestion and is halfway up the stairs when she calls out, “Mom, who’s at the door?”

Pepper doesn’t answer.

Alayna takes a sip of her water as she makes it to the living room. 

“Mom? Who’s at the—”, she asks as she looks up. Her frustration from her fall into the foam pit melts as she sees the person in question. “D-Dad?” 

“Hey Lanie,” Tony says, giving a small wave to his daughter. 

“Hi? What’re you doing here?”

Morgan steps by her side, coming from behind. She says in a whisper, “If you woulda checked your phone you would’ve known we’d be flying out. Dad told me not to tell anyone, but I texted you. Turns out he had nothing to worry about if you don’t know how to check your dang text messages.”

“I’ve been training, sorry… phone’s in my room.” The twins hold each other’s hand and use their free hands to signal fingers crossed by their sides. “Please get back together… please,” Alayna mumbles to herself then. 

“I missed intensive for this, so it better be worth it,” Morgan mumbles. 

“I came back this time, Pep,” Tony looks at Pepper with an awkward smile. 

“I, um, see that,” Pepper nods, letting out a shaky breath. “Did your, uh, Mom yell at you to come after me or was this all you?”

“It took about fifteen seconds after you and Alayna left that I realized I didn’t want to lose you again,” Tony says. “I made the mistake of not going after you once before, I don’t know what I’d have done if I hadn’t listened to my heart this time. Got the first flight I could out here. Economy sucks.”

“Do you honestly just expect me to go weak at the knees, fall into your arms, and pick up right where we left off twelve years ago?”, Pepper asks with a conflicted expression. “You know, except this time with two twelve and a half year old girls and God knows what else?”

Tony’s at a loss for words as he steps inside. ...or at least it seems like he is at a loss for words.

“What do you expect to happen, Tony?”, Pepper continues. Her breath picks up as she looks at him. Alayna swears she sees Pepper’s eyes look at his lips while her own part wordlessly for a brief moment… shutting them as she thinks. “That we’ll have that happily ever after we both dreamed of way back when and that we’ll grow old together and raise our daughters together? ...and… and… oh, Tony. I...”

“Ideally, yes,” Tony answers, closing in the space between them. “To all of the above. But if you don’t want to, that’s okay too. I’ll sleep well knowing I actually gave it a shot this—“

Pepper wraps her arms around his waist and initiates a kiss that Tony gives into almost immediately. They both smile in it. Pepper pulls her right palm up to the back of Tony’s head and it drifts down to his left shoulder as the first kiss leads into the second. 

The two separate, Pepper’s hand still laying on his shoulder. 

Tony mumbles, “Weird?”

“No, it’s not weird,” Pepper assures, quietly. “I, uh, missed that. Can you, um—“

He kisses Pepper again. He pulls his right arm around her waist then.

Alayna feels Morgan’s hand let go of hers, but doesn’t glance in her direction until she says, “I can’t believe we did it. We actually did it!”

The girls’ parents both open their eyes and pull away immediately, looking at where the voice came from with amusement. Tony’s right arm stays around Pepper’s waist, while Pepper’s right stays by her side. 

The younger twin stifles a small laugh, looking at her sister who looked like she was about to burst into tears ( ~~ frankly so was Alayna ~~ ), “You okay there, Mo?”

“You should ask yourself that question,” Morgan huffs, wiping away the stray tears. 

“Come here, my little matchmakers,” Tony calls over to both of the girls. 

Alayna stays still while Morgan runs over to their parents. Morgan hugs onto her Dad, letting out a small squeal.

Alayna stands back, her hands over her heart as she watches. 

“I believe Dad used a plural form of the word ‘matchmaker’, Alayna,” Pepper glances at her youngest daughter after rubbing Morgan’s back lovingly. 

Alayna walks over to her family and wraps her left arm around her Mother’s side. She feels a few tears fall as the understanding that the love of her family has reunited dawns on her. 

Pepper reaches around Alayna’s back and grasps onto Tony’s hand. 

“Just to, um, clarify. You two still love each other, right? I’m scared I reacted prematurely,” 

Morgan speaks up.

“Yeah, Maguna. I’ve never stopped loving her,” Tony answers. “I’m not sure where my head was at with that  _ Lady Tremaine _ .”

“And it turns out I’ve never stopped loving him,” Pepper finishes. “Not to worry, my beautiful girls.”

The couple lets go and then the daughters step away.

“You gonna break the news to Maria or shall I?”, Pepper shoots a look at Tony. “She knows why you were coming out here, right?”

“I’d prefer to get you a ring first,” Tony lets out an embarrassed laugh. “And no, though I think she has a suspicion. All of us should break the news to her, what do you think?”

Pepper snickers, “That’s alright.” She lets out a small breath. “I need to go to my office for a sec, I’ll be back.” She retreats from the living room only after giving Tony a kiss on the cheek.

Tony tries to hide his obvious smile before looking at his daughters, “Hey, you two want to help me with something?”

“What?”, Alayna asks.

“I’m assuming both of you know what mine and your Mom’s first date was, right?”, he asks.

Morgan’s face lights up, “Yeah, I do. Why?”

“So I’m thinking… Do you two want to come with me and help me pick out a ring for your mother? After that, grab pizza somewhere and ice cream from Baskin Robbins?”

The girls look at each other before looking back at their Dad, nodding.

“Is it alright if I go change? I was just training and when you rang the doorbell I had to slip this over my leo,” Alayna asks with an embarrassed laugh. “There’s gym chalk all over my clothes, too, so...”

“Yeah. Go for it, kiddo,” Tony says before Alayna walks upstairs to her room. 

Tony leaves a note for JARVIS to give to Pepper that says, “Took the girls out to town for a bit. We’ll be back in an hour or two.”

————

**Pepper:**

“Where did you three run off to, huh? I asked JARVIS but he said he was sworn to secrecy,” Pepper asks as she welcomes her daughters and unofficial fiancé back. She spots the Baskin Robbins bag hanging on Morgan’s left elbow, Alayna holding the two boxes of pizza, and Tony seemingly empty handed at her door. “What’s this about?” The girls stay quiet as they sit the food on the coffee table and Tony walks inside.

“Please tell me you get it,” Tony’s eyes widened, fear lingering in his eyes.

“Oh, yes. I do get it,” Pepper says with a small knowing smile. “What flavors?”

“Morgan asked for cookies and cream, Alayna asked for birthday cake. German chocolate for me, chocolate chip cookie dough for you,” Tony states. “ _ And _ , pepperoni pizza.” 

“Like our first date,” Pepper mumbles. 

“I can’t lose you again, Pep,” Tony says. “And I know you already technically said yes…” He pulls out a black ring box just before getting down on one knee. “I love you, immensely. Our girls’ convoluted plan made me realize I've always loved you every day before, after, and ever since. I realized it the night I brought the girls back home from the camping trip and I didn’t know how you’d react if I would’ve told you. Then a day goes by and I don’t say anything because I was scared, but then it feels wrong to see you leave… you know?” He pauses, letting his own tears come. “You complete me… I love you, Virginia Annaliese Potts. Do you think we could give this another go, you and me? I’m willing to go all in. Will you marry me,  _ again _ ?” He opens the box with his one hand, revealing a small pear shaped diamond ring.

“Oh come on, you can be more sappy than that,” she teases, with tears in her eyes. 

“Wait, so me taking the first flight I could get all the way across the country, letting our kids help me pick out your engagement ring, and trying to recreate our first date to the best of my ability isn’t sappy enough for you?”, Tony asks. “Ouch, I’m hurt.”

Pepper rolls her eyes. “Yes, I’ll marry you  _ again. _ ” She glances at her daughters before looking back at him with a genuine look of happiness, she lets her arms fall to her side. “Just one step at a time though, please? Maybe a longer engagement, I don’t know. Just so we have enough time to figure all of this out. After all, we’re talking about two completely different lives across the country.”

“Oh, of course,” he says. Tony uses his free hand to hold Pepper’s left hand in his and fumbles to get the ring out with the other. 

“Do you need help?”, Pepper snickers.

“Yes,” he admits. 

She pulls the ring out of the box and hands it to him, before attempting to set the box down carefully on the ground. 

He slides the ring on her finger and stands up a moment later, giving her the warmest embrace. “I love you too, by the way,” Pepper says in the hug. The two kiss again, before they turn toward the girls. 

**Tony:**

Tony’s about to say something when his phone starts ringing in his pocket. He takes the phone in his hand and stifles a laugh as he inspects the contact, “That would be my unsuspecting mother.”

He steps away and answers the call, “Mom—“

“Anthony Edward Stark, where on Earth are you and Morgan?”, Maria scolds as soon as the call picks up. “It’s almost ten, I was worried sick! Intensive ended at seven! I almost called in a missing person report and everything—”

“Mom,” Tony sympathetically laughs. “I haven’t heard you call me by my full name in, what? Ten years? Wow, that was weird. I’m sorry we scared you. I promise you, we’re fine. Oh, and it’s technically almost 7 PM where we’re at.” 

“It’s, what?”

“Recognize this place?”, Tony asks, tapping his screen to face away from him. His phone camera focuses on his fiancée talking to their daughters in the living room of his old house. It felt so weird standing in there for the first time in years. 

“You went after her,” Maria mumbles, there’s a content smile that appears. 

Pepper looks up from her babbling daughters who were talking about being junior bridesmaids and walks over toward her fiancé with his phone, “Hello, Maria.” He turns the phone camera back on him as Pepper rests her left hand on his bicep. Tony can see the engagement ring on her hand in the small visual preview and the reunited couple not-so-patiently await Tony’s mother’s reaction. 

“Are you two—“

“Yes, he proposed to me about five minutes ago,” Pepper nods. “The girls helped him pick the ring out. Arguably, it’s better than the first.” She turns her head to the right and kisses his cheek. “He tried to recreate our first date.”

“You are the first outside of JARVIS to know,” Tony says. 

Pepper gives a knowing smile at Tony before stepping away, “I’m going to go grab plates for the pizza and bowls for the ice cream.” She walks away then.

“Tony,” Maria grabs his attention. 

“Huh?”, he hums, looking back at her. 

“You’re the happiest when you’re with her, you know,” Maria says. “I won’t bother you anymore today, I’m just glad you’re okay and that you listened to your heart this time. Love you.”

“Love you too,” Tony says before ending the call.

The family spent the rest of the evening by eating pizza and ice cream and by all curling up on the couch to watch Tangled together. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We’re in the end stretch, y’all! Cannot wait for you to see the ending of this. <3
> 
> Chat with me on my socials and keep up with my fics!  
> Twitter: aoskayla   
> Tumblr: akasharpiegirl


	13. Thanksgiving Fun

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wedding preparations, family banter, and Thanksgiving fun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry for the delay! I hated the way this chapter looked when I read through it the other day and completely overhauled it. I hope you like it! It’s probably a little out of place, but you can’t go wrong with some nice family fun. :)
> 
> As of now, I’m still working on fixing another chapter that will come before the wedding chapter and do not have an upload date for it just yet. I’ll keep ya updated on my socials!

**[11.21.21**

**11:17 AM PST]**

**Pepper:**

It’s been about four months since they started dating again. Long distance, sure. But they were dating and it was going really well… which is the most important thing. They set a date for the wedding for May. T-Minus six months until they get remarried. Though, they were going to move in together in a few weeks just before Christmas. 

Pepper hears Morgan and Tony enter her house and walks into the living room to greet them. She gives Tony an embrace and a kiss before stepping away. She hums as she says: “I missed you.” 

“I missed you too,” Tony says in a hushed tone.

“Hi, Maguna,” Pepper smiles at her daughter, who stood next to Tony. “I missed you too, kiddo.”

“I missed you too!” Morgan gives her mother a hug, “You’re coming to my recital, right?”

“I wouldn’t miss it for the world, baby girl,” Pepper answers before Morgan steps away back toward her Dad. “It’s right after we move to the new house, remember?”

“Oh, yeah,” Morgan nods happily.

Tony stifles a laugh, “You break the news to everyone at the company yet?”

“No,” Pepper says. “Still trying to pull together loose ends with the building in Boston before I do. You know, and trying to get this place up on the market. I’m just glad we have secured an offer on the house in Stoneham.”

“I’m shocked the secret still hasn’t gotten out,” Tony muses. “And yes, same.”

Alayna comes downstairs.

Morgan runs over to Alayna then. “Mo, I gotta show you something,” Alayna says upon her sister’s arrival.

“Five minutes, okay?”, Pepper calls over to them as they run upstairs.

“What’s in five minutes?”, Tony raises a brow once the girls are in Alayna’s (and also Morgan’s when she’s staying over) room. 

“Leaving to go for my second wedding dress fitting so they can send it off for alterations and then go bridesmaid and flower girl dress shopping,” she says, nonchalantly. “If the secret hasn’t gotten out by now, the rumor mill will start after I’m spotted visiting wedding dress shops… again. ‘Cause the engagement ring wasn’t apparently enough to tip off the press.” There’s humor in her voice at the end.

“Oh, you’ve already got a wedding dress picked out?”, Tony’s eyes widened, he sounded intrigued and almost nervous. “Is that so? Can you tell me anything about it or am I not allowed to know?”

“Of course I do! The wedding’s in May, Stark,” Pepper teases him. “You can wait that long, can’t you?”

“That’s, what? Five and a half months from now?”, Tony jokes. “Wow, that’s honestly not that far, huh?”

“It’s really not,” she shakes her head. “It feels like yesterday when I broke the news to my Mom and stepdad… and, you know, everyone else in my family.”

“Your Mom was so excited. Shawn’s reaction was truly the best when it came to the Potts family though,” Tony lets out a content smile. “Rhodes’ reaction takes the cake on my side, even though my Mom’s was truly something.”

“Shawn really was so shocked,” Pepper genuinely laughs. “That look of pure surprise is one I’ll never forget. I feel like Thanksgiving is going to be very interesting.” 

Tony nods, “Regarding Thanksgiving, is your mom already here? Or is she coming later in the week? I feel like my Mom and her are going to have the time of their lives getting to talk to each other again without feeling like traitors.”

“She’s coming with me to the fitting, so I’d hope she’s around somewhere. She flew in last night but went out to get coffee about thirty minutes ago,” Pepper says humorously. “The kids, Amanda and her daughter who’s the flower girl, Chris’ wife, my mom, and Alicia are all supposed to be coming today. Your Mom’s on call since she can’t come until Tuesday.”

“Well, I hope it goes well,” Tony switches the subject. “Whatever you picked out, you’ll look stunning. Always do.”

Pepper’s smile widens at the compliment, hoping that a blush doesn’t invade her pale skin. She’s about to say something when—

“We’re ready to go!”, Alayna says as she hops from the last step to the floor. Morgan stifles a small giggle as she takes a simple step down. 

“In that case…”, Pepper nods. “See you at back here around lunch? Hope you don’t get too bored.”

“Exhaustion may take over before I have a chance to,” Tony shrugs. 

Alayna makes a beeline for her Dad and wraps her arms around his waist, “I missed you, Dad. So much.”

“Oh,” Tony says, letting out a small chuckle as he wraps his arms around her back. “I missed you too! Way too much for words to say. Have fun, okay?”

“We will,” Alayna says as the two let go.

“You’ve gotta tell me how seventh grade is going when you get back,” Tony jokes as his girls start to leave.

**———**

**Pepper:**

“Mom! You look so beautiful!”, Morgan exclaims, seeing her mother turn around in the a-line white wedding gown. Off the shoulder sleeves and subtle appliquéd floral patterns cascading down the dress.

“You really do look stunning, V,” her mother, Elaine, says in a calm tone. 

“I think I may like it better than the one you wore in 2005,” Maria says through the phone. “Very elegant, very you.”

Pepper smiles at the compliments, but looks at Alayna, who had been quiet since she came out with the altered dress on. Her daughter had watery eyes. “You okay?”

“Y-Yeah, I.. I just,” Alayna mumbles. “You’re getting remarried to my… my Dad soon and it just didn’t feel, uh, real until now.”

“Aw, don’t cry!”, Pepper’s six year old niece, Anna, hugs the youngest twin from the side. “Aunt Ginny and Uncle Tony love each other! That’s supposed to make you happy, Lanie.”

“They’re, um, happy tears, Anna. Happy tears are good,” Alayna lets out a small laugh as she hugs her cousin. She looks at her Mom. “I’ve never been this happy in my life, Mom.”

Pepper smiles at her youngest daughter, “I think I have to agree, kiddo.”

———

Morgan:

“What do you think?”, Morgan asks as she and her sister walk out in their versions of the bridesmaid dress. The junior bridesmaid dresses they were trying on were light blue. Cold shoulder, with not-so-overbearing ruffles on the top of the bodice. 

“I love them,” Pepper says. “You both look so pretty! But, what do you two think? If this dress isn’t your style, I don’t mind listening to your ideas.”

Morgan turns to the nearest mirror first just moments before Alayna does as well. Upon each girl examining the dresses, both turned around.

Morgan smiles, “I really like it. I would probably like it more if it were more of a darker blue, not like Cinderella’s dress. But, it’s really cute.”

“I really like the way the ruffles lay,” Alayna says. “I personally love the color choice.”

“Would you like to see the darker blue choice we have available?”, the stylist asks Pepper. “We have both in each style.”

“Sure, it couldn’t hurt,” Pepper says, before looking back at her kids. The stylist walks off.

“Thank you for actually listening to my opinions,” Morgan halfheartedly says. “I don’t think my opinion would be cared for if life took a different route a few months ago…”

“No problem,” Pepper snickers. “I love hearing kids and their brutally honest opinions. Plus, the color you’re interested in works with the scheme.”

The stylist returns with three dresses in the royal blue shade. “Both dresses here are in the shade called midnight and match your theme perfectly. Just like the dresses your daughters are currently dressed in.”

“Would you like to try them on?”, Pepper asks.

After trying the dress in a different color, the girls returned.

“I actually like the darker blue better,” Alayna shrugs.

“I really like it,” Morgan nods.

“Darker blue it is,” Pepper grins. 

**[2:45 PM]**

**Pepper:**

While her fiancé was (probably) conked out due to jet lag somewhere in the house, Pepper and her girls were sitting at the kitchen island, munching on snacks and chatting amongst themselves.

“Are you both absolutely sure you want to share a room together at the new house?”, she asks as she takes a handful of trail mix from the bowl.

“All we’ve ever done since we re-met has had to do with sharing a room,” Morgan shrugs. “Seems kinda right.”

“Okay,” Pepper nods with an insincere smile. “If you ever change your mind we can always convert what room is supposed to be the office into one of your rooms. Your Dad and I can just work at the kitchen table or if we’re leaning toward the lazy side… the couch.”

“I don’t think we’ll change our minds anytime soon, Mom,” Alayna assures. 

Pepper hears movement coming from outside of the kitchen before seeing her fiancé enter. 

He lets out a yawn before sitting next to Pepper and giving her a chaste kiss. “How’d the fitting thing go?”

“Good,” Pepper says quietly with a smile. 

He looks across the island to his daughters, “You two have fun?”

“Mhm,” Morgan hums. “Mom looks absolutely beautiful in that dress, Dad.”

“Does she now?”, Tony muses with a small smile.

“She does,” Alayna nods.

“Oh, I know,” Tony says back. “Always is, no question about it. Your Mother is the most gorgeous woman I’ve ever laid my eyes on, you know.” He glances at Pepper, who had involuntarily blushed at the statement.

“Alayna got a bit emotional when we were there,” Pepper states nonchalantly, changing the subject.

The younger twin’s eyes widened at the statement, “Uh—“

“Why?”, Tony asks. 

“It finally hit her that we’re going to be a whole family again,” Morgan throws her younger sister under the bus.

“Oh, aw,” Tony sympathetically smiles at the younger sister. “I get emotional over that sometimes, too. I was sorting through graded exams last week and started tearing up over it, actually.”

Alayna lets out a small grin at her Dad’s statement. 

Tony takes a beat before looking at Pepper and asking, “Have you shown them any photos from the 2005 ceremony?”

Pepper shakes her head, “Should I?”

Tony’s about to say something before their girls interrupt him with a, “Yes!”

“I’m sure my Mom probably has some at the ready,” Tony notes, with a small shrug. “Text her and ask her.”

A few moments passed. 

“This—“, Pepper starts as she turns her phone toward her daughters. “—was from our wedding in 2005.”

She glances at Tony as the couple awaits their daughters’ imminent reactions.

“Oh my God,” Morgan mumbles before looking up and letting out a slight squeal. “You two are so cute! Dad looks a lot different now though.”

“Gee, wonder why,” Tony laughs. “Raising a kid isn’t exactly a walk in the park. Got the gray hair to prove it.”

“Well, it can be. If the park is on fire, ground is covered in LEGOs and other small toys, and then there’s an asteroid of people telling you that you’re parenting your own kids wrong hurtling towards you at a million miles an hour,” Pepper shrugs. 

Tony nods with wide eyes, “Yep. That’s an accurate description.”

Alayna hands back Pepper’s phone, “Mom? Can I ask you something?”

Pepper hums, “Sure. What’s on your mind, kiddo?”

“The dress for May is really different than the one back then. Why?”, she inquires.

Pepper lets out a snicker, “Probably has to do with the troublemaking twins I gave birth to three years after my wedding day.” She looks at Tony, who has a look of intrigue on his face. “Alayna, I’ll double your allowance next month if you don’t tell your Dad anything about my dress. Morgan, too.”

“Hey!”, Tony yelps. “Don't bribe them!”

“Look me in the eyes and say you wouldn’t bribe them to tell you anything about the dress,” Pepper jokingly challenges him as she folds her arms and rests them on the island counter.

“I love having rich parents,” Morgan mumbles under her breath.

**[11.25.21**

**3:32 PM]**

“Do you want some?”, Alayna asks as she sets down the bowl of cranberry sauce a few feet in front of Morgan. The family is conversing amongst themselves as they serve themselves Thanksgiving food. 

Morgan looks at it with wide eyes before letting out a nervous laugh, “Um… not really. Thank you though.”

Chris looks up from his plate as he finishes buttering a roll, “Wait. Morgan, you don’t like cranberry sauce?”

“No?”, Morgan says, it comes out more like a question. 

Elaine abruptly stops talking to Maria, and looks at her granddaughter, “Are you absolutely sure that you don’t like cranberry sauce or have you just not tried it?”

Morgan almost shrinks at the question, “I’ve, um, never tried it? Is that bad?”

“Oho?”, Shawn baffles. “‘Is that bad’, you ask.” 

Chris lets out a genuine laugh, shooting a look at Tony, “Tony, where on Earth did you go wrong with raising her because she is the only member of the family who’s picky?”

Tony looks at his daughter with a sympathetic look before looking at Chris and answers, “What’re you hassling me for, man? I’ve been tryin’ to get her to eat more foods other than chicken tenders and grilled cheese for years.”

Morgan darts her head to look at her Dad with a gaped mouth, “Dad! I eat more than that!”

“Not much more than that, kid,” Tony shrugs. 

“You can’t just say that you don’t like something if you’ve never tried it, Mo,” Amanda says to her. “Everyone here but you has liked it or tried it before.” 

“Stop bullying me, my God!”, Morgan whines and hides her head in her hands for a quick second before looking back up. “I doubt any of the other kids like that stuff.”

“Not necessarily,” Pepper disagrees, pointing to Carter, who sat at the left end of the dining table. He, in fact, did have a slice of the food item in question.

“Please? Just try it. For your baby sister,” Alayna jokingly pleads. 

The eldest twin grumbles, “Fine. You win. But that doesn't negate the fact that all of you are mean.” She cuts off the tiniest bit of food from a slice with her fork. She takes a bite of it before scrunching her face up. “No.”

“Welp, we can’t save all of ‘em,” Shawn laughs. “Got another lost soul.”

“The only two good things to come out of my summer vacation this year was meeting my sister and getting our parents back together,” Morgan grumbles. “Y’all are bullies.”

“We’re just teasing, Mo,” Elaine sympathetically smiles at the picky preteen. She takes a beat, “Before we continue with food, shall we go around and list off one thing we’re currently each thankful for?”

Alayna shakes her head, “Honestly, I’m starving and I’m fairly certain I know what more than half of our answers are. So, please help a girl out and raise your hand if your answer has anything to do with the lovebirds known as my parents.” She raises her hand, followed by Morgan next.

Her parents let out embarrassed laughs, before raising their individual hands.

Maria and Elaine are next, followed (shockingly) by Pepper’s stepdad. 

Shawn, Amanda, Chris, and Anna are the last to raise their hands.

After the giant reunited family had their Thanksgiving dinner, everyone was sprawled out around the living room doing various things. Anna and Carter were playing together. Maria and Elaine were talking each other’s ears off. Chris and his wife were cuddling on the couch. Tony and Pepper were cuddling also. Amanda was napping while her husband held her close. Shawn sat next to his stepfather on the loveseat, looking at football scores. And lastly, the twins were talking about the way they wanted their new room in the new house to look like.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hang out with me on my socials!  
> Twitter: aoskayla   
> Tumblr: akasharpiegirl


	14. What The Holidays Mean To Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Christmas and New Years festivities are spent in the new Potts-Stark lakehouse in Massachusetts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last we left off, the family had some fun thanksgiving plans to attend to. 
> 
> Side note: I don’t care if Halloween just ended, I wanted to write Christmas and winter domestic fluff. 
> 
> Also, second side note: I’m SO sorry for the delay in this chapter. I promise that the last chapter will be up way quicker than this one.

**[12.7.21**

**2:30 PM EST]**

**Morgan:**

“Ms. Sanders, may you pick up on your wall phone for a minute?”, the secretary asked over the intercom.

“Yes ma’am, I’ll be there in a second,” Morgan’s history teacher walks away from the board and picks up the wall phone.

Morgan knew what this call was about, but even still... she was anxiously awaiting the approval to pack up her things and go.

“Okay, thank you. I’ll let her know,” Ms. Sanders says before hanging up the phone and walking over to Morgan’s desk. “Your Dad’s here to take you home, early dismissal.”

“Thank you,” Morgan gave a small smile before swinging her backpack onto her back and she walked out the door.

She speed-walked down the seventh grade hall and found her way to the main office, where her Dad sat in one of the crappy chairs waiting on her arrival. 

“Just need to sign your name in the row next to your Dad’s, and then you’re good to go,” the same secretary from before says to Morgan, handing her a pen.

She quickly signs her name, sets the clipboard on the desk, and walks over to Tony. “You ready to get a move on, kiddo?”, he asks as he stands up and the two begin to walk out to his car. “Finished moving in yours and Alayna’s beds to your room before I left. Still got a lotta work left to do today though. You excited?”

“What do you mean, ‘are you excited’? It’s the first night at the new house, of course I am!”, Morgan exclaims happily as Tony unlocks his car.

**———**

**[5:53 PM]**

The girls are in their room unpacking various books, knickknacks, and other things when their Mom peeks in the doorway. “You two want to help Dad and me put up Christmas stuff? I’m making hot chocolate, too. Nonna’s coming by to drop off takeout around 7.”

Morgan sets down the novel on one of the bookcase shelves before looking at her Mom. The twins share a look before nodding and following Pepper downstairs to find boxes of holiday decorations sitting amongst the newly moved in living room furniture. Morgan could hear quiet Christmas music playing through the living room, probably planted by her mother. 

“Which tree?”, a tired and somewhat sweaty Tony asks as he walks in from the front door. “The green one or the silver one? Take a vote?”

Pepper hums for a moment before saying, “Green.”

“Yeah,” Morgan nods in agreement.

“Green,” Alayna says.

“It’s unanimous!”, Tony jokes before glancing at Pepper. “Pep, you want to put it up or shall I?”

Pepper grins at him as she takes out the newly bought jug of almond milk from the fridge, “I’ll give you a kiss if you put it up.” She sets it down on the island before she teases. “Plus, if I leave you in charge of the hot cocoa, I’m not sure what would happen…” 

He gapes at her comment, “Hey! I make pretty good hot chocolate, ask Morgan.”

“He does,” Morgan nods. “Not lyin’ either.”

Tony looks at his girls who stood at the base of the stairwell, “You two want to put up the stockings?”

She and Alayna agree before beginning to scour through boxes for them. 

A few minutes pass when Alayna looks over at Morgan, who was hanging up her stocking on the fireplace mantle. “Yours is really cute! From the Nutcracker ballet, right?”

“Mhm,” Morgan hums before bending down to grab her Dad’s. “We were supposed to do that ballet this year, but not enough people showed up for auditions, so it’s just the holiday show. I auditioned for Clara.”

“Well, I can’t wait to see you perform at the holiday show,” Alayna smiles at her sister, hanging up her own stocking. “Grandma made mine for me when I was five.”

Morgan raises a brow at the statement, spotting the item in question, “It’s so cute! Reminds me of a quilt I used to use all the time when I was a kid.”

Tony interjects as he continues to put up the Christmas tree, “That’s because it was actually made by your Grandma, Maguna.”

“I thought you gave that to me when I was four?”, Morgan asks, picking up Pepper’s stocking from a box.

“Yes, that’s technically true. But, your grandmother sent gifts that I was supposed to give to you every year. That was one of them,” Tony says nonchalantly. “Don’t recall how she got the address, but sure.”

“Wait, my Mom sent Morgan gifts?”, Pepper looks over from the kitchen. “She never told me that. I mean, it’s not surprising, but, you know.”

“Yeah,” Tony answers. “Imagine my shock when I got home from work one day to see a package sent from a ‘Mrs. Elaine Potts-Bray’ in Branford, Connecticut on my front porch.”

“She probably got your address from Maria,” Pepper notes, half laughing. 

Tony’s eyes widened, pointing at her with a set of artificial tree limb attachments in hand for a moment, “You probably hit the jackpot with that guess.”

Before Morgan can announce that she and her sister are done putting up the stockings, she hears one particular Christmas song playing through the speaker and scrunches up her face in disgust. “Can someone change that? Please? I can’t stand that song.”

Pepper raises an eyebrow, “It’s just a peppy Christmas song?”

“And it’s also one I’ve heard on repeat twice a week for the last four months,” Morgan grumbles. “It’s the opener and closer for the Christmas show. I did it perfectly at dress rehearsal, it’s not going to hurt me to skip it.”

“If you say so,” Tony nods before manually skipping the song from ‘Christmas Cmon’ by Lindsey Stirling to yet another cover of ‘What Christmas Means to Me’. “Let’s hope you didn’t just jinx your Christmas show on Saturday.”

“Oh, and if ‘Christmas Together’ comes on, please skip that one too,” Morgan says, ignoring her Dad’s sentiment. “I’m tired of hearing about a girl spinning her Christmas records and being stuck on an elevator with twenty people.”

**———**

**[10:58 PM]**

Pepper walks into her’s and Tony’s new bedroom with Tony following close behind after every Christmas decoration known to man was put up in the living area and they said goodnight to their twins. He whispers in her ear upon closing the door behind him, “You never gave me the kiss you promised me I’d get if I put up the Christmas tree.”

Pepper’s smile softens, “Oh, that’s right.” She looks at him as she sits on her side of the bed. “There’s Hershey Kisses on the island left over from the hot chocolate.”

He looks at her dumbfounded as he sits next to her, “Oh, come on!”

She snickers before pulling his arms around her waist and gives him a kiss that morphs into two and three more. 

They pull away, and Tony mumbles in response, I love you, way more than words can say.”

“I love you too,” Pepper says with a small smile before she rolls over on her side. “Goodnight, Tony.”

Pepper can hear a small whine come from her fiancé. She lets out a small laugh at his protest before turning back over to face him, the palm of her left hand laying on the edge of her pillow. “What’s the matter?”

“Nothing,” Tony states, reaching his right hand to move her slightly overgrown bangs out of her eyes. “I just can’t wait to actually spend the rest of my life together with you.” 

“I can’t wait to marry you, either,” Pepper grins at him before she teases. “Is that all, Mr. Stark?”

Sometime later, the two fall asleep in each other’s arms. 

**[12.9.21**

**8:27 PM]**

**Morgan:**

Morgan sees one of her friends back away from the ‘x’ at the front center of stage and she chasses to take the newly available spot. She completes a traditional ballet curtsy before standing up and taking a second to look out at the crowd. Her usual performance smile is replaced with a genuine beam of happiness when she spots her whole immediate family sitting in the front row of the balcony. Her Dad, her mom, her sister, Nonna… all there. It felt like a dream.

She hears the chorus of Christmas C’mon repeat for the three-thousandth time of the night before stepping back in line with her team. 

Next thing she knows, she’s being bombarded by her family in the concourse of the performing arts center after the holiday recital. 

“You did so good!”, Pepper exclaims as she hugs her daughter. “I can’t believe I’ve missed so many of these.”

“I’ve got the DVDs if we want to binge them tonight and see how long it takes Maguna to cringe,” Tony jokes. 

Morgan gapes as she gently wriggles out of her Mom’s arms, “Dad, no!”

“I’m just teasing, kiddo. Though I did find the stash of your recital videos in a box yesterday if you would like to show them to your Mom,” Tony grins at her. “I do think this is your best performance yet. And that’s coming from the guy who said your lil’ In Summer routine you did when you were four was the best performance I’ve ever seen!”

“Wait, that was why you were in a snowman costume in the picture of you in Dad’s office?”, Alayna, who was holding onto the not-yet-gifted bouquet of flowers, perks up at the understanding.

“Mhm,” Morgan nods. 

“That’s so cute! You danced beautifully tonight though, Mo,” Alayna compliments before handing her sister the bouquet of flowers. “These are for you, by the way. From all of us.”

“Thank you,” Morgan takes them from Alayna, resting them in the crook of her elbow. 

“I still think you should reconsider the ballet intensive, la mia bella ragazza. You’re the most wonderful dancer I’ve ever seen,” Maria says. “But if your heart desires a two month summer camp and engineering, that’s okay too.”

“Nonna!”, Morgan yelps. “You act like me liking engineering is a bad thing.”

“It’s not,” Maria shakes her head. “I just think you need to invest in your hobbies and talents more. That’s not a bad thing.”

Morgan snickers, “I love you all.”

**[12.24.21**

**11:36 PM]**

**Alayna:**

“What do you think we’re gonna get for Christmas?”, Alayna walks upstairs to her and Morgan’s room and falls stomach-first on her own bed.

“I dunno?”, Morgan looks up from the book her nose has been stuck in for the last hour. “I really only asked for the Series of Unfortunate Events books. I rarely ask for more but Dad always figures out what else I want. I kinda want to play Animal Crossing, so we’ll see if he figured that out. And, he usually splits it up for my birthday too. What about you?”

“Oh! I love those books. I hope you get the set, they’re  _ so  _ good! And I hope you get the game, for both of our benefits,” Alayna grins. “I didn’t really ask for a lot either. At least not outright. What I asked for is kinda silly.”

“What?”, Morgan inquires.

“Have you seen that other Ghibli movie My Neighbor Totoro?”, Alayna asks. 

Morgan smiles, “Yeah! Though I prefer Arrietty.”

“My old co-op instructor played it on my last day instead of one of those cliche Christmas movies and it’s really cute,” Alayna says. “There’s a Totoro themed duffel bag that I’d use for gymnastics if I got it and it’s so cute! I also asked for some things from a show I watch. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of it, um—“ 

“What show?”, Morgan asks.

“Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts,” Alayna mumbles. 

“Ah! I love that show! How come you never told me that?”, Morgan exclaims. “It’s so good!”

“Who’s your favorite character?”, Alayna inquires with a small smile.

“I act more like Kipo, I think. But Benson’s probably my favorite,” Morgan shrugs. “Lio kinda reminds me of Dad.”

“I like Wolf. And I can see what you mean about Dad, personality wise,” Alayna nods. Alayna sees Morgan’s expression change. “You okay?”

“I, um… You know… now that I think about it. I think Dad wanted to tell me about you after we watched the episode where Kipo calls Wolf her sister for the first time... in season one,” Morgan trails on. “I said I wished I had a sister and he had this sad look on his face when the scene ended and after I said that. He kinda pulled me to the side after watching it… he wanted to tell me something and then he got a call from his boss right after he asked to talk to me. I think he forgot about what it was or got too scared to say anything because when I asked him what he wanted to talk about once he got off the phone, he said he forgot and would bring it up again if he remembered. But, Dad never brought it up again.”

“Oh, wow. That’s… um. Wow. When was that?”, Alayna asks.

“Almost two years ago now,” Morgan says. “We binge-watched it together over the weekend after it released once I got home from my competition rehearsal when Nonna was out of town for her work.”

“Y-You mean to tell me that our lives could be completely different right now if he would’ve told you then?”, Alayna asks with wide eyes. “I, oh my God—“

“It’s possible, yeah,” Morgan nods.

“You should ask him about that, like maybe tomorrow after opening presents or something,” Alayna suggests.

“Maybe so,” the eldest twin mumbles before going back to her book.

“I’m also kinda excited to go back to Parkington’s with you instead of Woodward… I like it better,” Alayna says a few moments later when the silence becomes too overwhelming for the both of them.

Morgan looks up again and giggles, “At least this summer we won’t have any surprises. It’s hard to believe this all stemmed from your injury, ya know. Like, how? That’s crazy.”

“Everything happens for a reason,” Alayna shrugs. “Plot twist, we’re triplets.”

Morgan’s eyes widened, “That would be an interesting discovery.”

The two let out a round of laughs, before a quietness settles over them. 

Morgan looks up from her book again a few minutes later, “You know my biggest birthday wish ever since I was really little came true this year.”

“Huh?” 

“You know how you’re supposed to make a wish when you blow out the birthday candles? Ever since I was five I’ve wished to know my Mama,”

“Why didn’t you say that when we came up with the switch?”, Alayna inquires. 

“You’re not supposed to share your wishes until they come true,” Morgan hums.

A few minutes pass by when their parents stand in the doorway of their room. 

“I know Christmas is exciting and everything, but it’s getting kinda late,” Pepper says to them with a small smile as the newly moved in Calypso trots into the twins’ room. “Try not to stay up too much longer, okay? We’ve got a big day tomorrow.”

“I respectfully ask for you both to not wake us up tomorrow unless it’s after 8 AM,” Tony teases, looking at Morgan. “Or I’ll have to hold your Christmas presents hostage until next year.”

“Dad! I can’t help it that I only like waking up early on Christmas morning,” Morgan shrugs as Calypso jumps on her bed and snuggles up next to her.

“Mhm,” Tony snickers. “Sure.”

“Sleep well, my beautiful girls,” Pepper says in a somewhat hushed tone.

“Goodnight, love you,” both Morgan and Alayna say almost simultaneously.

“Love you too,” the couple says back before stepping out and closing the door behind them.

  
  


**[12.25.21**

**12:29 AM]**

**Pepper:**

“Can you hand me that wrapping paper tube?”, Pepper asks, pointing to the metallic gold wrapping paper propped up against the coffee table as her fiancé set down the last present addressed to Alayna from them under the tree. 

“I’m still sad you won’t let me actually wrap anything,” Tony jokingly stated as he walks back with the wrapping paper tube.

“You and I both know that you aren’t the best at wrapping gifts,” she snickers. 

“I’ve gotten better over the years,” he shrugs with a fake pout as he sets the tube down on the island.

“You know, I heard the girls talking upstairs earlier,” Pepper switches the subject as she rolls the paper off the tube just slightly. 

“About what?”,” Tony asks, taking the book set from the counter and sitting it atop the paper.

“Apparently—“, Pepper takes a beat and smiles. “—Morgan’s yearly birthday wish was fulfilled this year. Wanna guess what that was?”

His face scrunched up as he thought before smiling, “Oh, aw. Getting to know you? Right?”

Pepper hums once she finishes cutting the wrapping paper. 

“How are you feeling about sending the girls to camp again after the wedding?”, Tony switches the subject. “I normally don’t register Maguna until the last minute, so this is weird knowing they’re already registered.”

“I’m not sure,” she laughs. “Thankfully there won’t be any surprises for either the girls or us this time around when they return to us.”

“Granted, the surprises from this summer turned out to be really lucky,” Tony says with a small smile as Pepper tapes the second side of wrapping paper to the book set. “The girls are reunited, we’re back together. Best outcome, if you ask me.”

“The best outcome, indeed,” she nods as Tony picks up the address stickers. 

“Which one? We’re out of the ones we used for Lanie,” he asks once Pepper successfully tapes the last part of the wrapping paper to the box. 

**[10:00 AM]**

**Tony:**

“Your girls are impatiently waiting for you to come downstairs and celebrate our  _ first _ Christmas as a family together,” Pepper teases as she walks in their room. 

“ _ My  _ girls?”, Tony’s eyes widened as he sits up. “Last I recall you gave birth to them. They’re ours.”

“Well,  _ our  _ girls are waiting for you to come downstairs and celebrate Christmas with us,” Pepper corrects. “Your Mom’s coming by in about two hours, bearing gifts.”

“I’m coming,” Tony says while he stands. “Christmas with your family is tomorrow in Connecticut, right?”

“Mhm,” Pepper nods as her husband follows her downstairs, to find their daughters sitting on the couch together with their unopened stockings laying on their laps. Three different mugs of either hot chocolate or coffee were on the coffee table, along with three plates of half eaten waffles. “Waffles are on the island, Alayna and Morgan helped. And coffee’s been brewed, you may need to reheat it.”

After Tony serves himself breakfast, Morgan interrupts: “Dad! Can we open our presents now?”

“Please, we’re waiting on you,” Alayna pleads. 

His eyes widened as he finished his sip of his coffee, “I’m sorry, you girls don’t have to wait for me. Go for it.”

**Morgan:**

She pulls out a pair of Animal Crossing themed socks from her stocking and smiles, “Love that.” She got those socks, new earbuds, various enamel pins to put on her dance and school bag, some scrunchies, a sugar cube necklace, and a Totoro pencil set in her stocking. 

“Wait, is the necklace because of Arrietty?”, Alayna asks as she pulls out an identical sugar cube necklace to Morgan’s. 

“Yeah,” Pepper nods. “You both like the movie, so we figured…”

“It’s really cute, thank you,” Morgan smiles.

“Thank you,” Alayna nods. She got the necklace, a Kipo shirt, different scrunchies then Morgan, some earrings, different enamel pins for her gym bag that ranged anywhere from relating to gymnastics to random bits of pop culture that she cared about, and cat socks. 

Pepper stands up from the couch and says, “Okay, so I need to preface this before we get to actually unwrapping things. I ordered the bag for you, Alayna, but it was on backorder. It shipped out  _ yesterday  _ and will make it in time for your birthday. You’ll get it then. But in the meantime…”

“Okay…”, Alayna nods as Pepper walks to the closet door.

“We need you both to close your eyes real quick,” Tony says.

Morgan shoots her dad a weird look, “Why?”

“Just do it, okay. Please? We didn’t wrap these,” Tony fake frowns and presses his palms together for a moment as if he were begging. 

“Fine,” Morgan humorously rolls her eyes before closing her eyes. 

A moment later, she hears Tony say: “Okay, their eyes are closed. Coast’s clear.”

About thirty seconds later, Morgan feels something soft placed in her hands. “Did we get another cat?”

“I’d ask the same thing but what I’m holding is too small and isn’t moving,” Alayna laughs.

“No, it’s not another cat,” Tony says. “Still can’t convince your Mama to adopt another. Besides, outside of the Catbus, there’s no other correlation to cats with Totoro.”

“Mama!”, Alayna yelps. “Why do you hate cats so much?”

“I don’t  _ hate  _ them, Lanie-bug,” Pepper says. “Oh, you can open your eyes now.”

Morgan opens her eyes to find a mini Totoro plush who’s holding the leaf umbrella in her hand. “It’s so cute! The leaf umbrella!”

“It’s literally so tiny,” Alayna smiles. 

Morgan (and technically Alayna), received a Nintendo Switch system, along with Animal Crossing: New Horizons and a few other games. Morgan got the book set she had been asking for, a few new Funko Pop figures, new athletic clothes for dance and summer camp, and a new phone case. 

Alayna received new winter clothing, a Wolf Funko Pop figure, a few new leotards for gymnastics, a new makeup palette (again for gymnastics meets), a backpack now that she’d be going to public school starting next month, and a new phone case. 

Along with the Nintendo Switch, both of the girls got a record player and a stipend so they could get whichever two that they wanted to get first. 

**———**

**[2:30 PM]**

**Morgan:**

  
  


“Dad, can I talk to you for a minute?”, Morgan says after eating Christmas lunch with her family. She’s standing up next to the trash can after cleaning up.

He hums, “Sure.” He follows her up to her room while Pepper, Alayna, and Maria are downstairs. “What’s up, kiddo? Everything all okay?” He sits down on the edge of Alayna’s bed, facing her.

“Um,” Morgan scrunches up her face as she sits down on the edge of her bed. “Remember that weekend when you and I, uh, watched the whole season of Kipo together when Nonna was out of town?”

He nods, “Yeah... what about it?”

“...when you stopped at the end of the episode where she calls Wolf her sister,” Morgan continues. “...and asked if we could talk. Um, were you about to tell me about Alayna? Before, uh, your boss called?”

His mouth twisted into a grimace and gives a small head nod with an eyebrow raise before speaking. “Yep,” he says, his voice sounds almost strained. 

“Why didn’t you?”, Morgan asks. 

“Fear? I don’t know,” Tony shrugs. “I knew you were going to ask a whole bunch of questions about her if I had and I didn’t even have a single answer prepared for any of those possible questions... and I didn’t want to lose your trust either. ‘Cause from what you understood, I told you everything. When in fact, I hadn’t. I just kinda assumed you’d hate me if I did.”

“What made this different?”, Morgan asks. “Like, were you scared too when you realized I knew?”

“It wasn’t my choice, that’s the difference,” Tony says. “That was chance that you and Lanie met, you found out together with your sister. On your own. It’s selfish, but I was grateful that you found out on your own because it delayed your anger over it towards me and because your sister had the answers I wouldn’t have had if I told you myself. Like, what is she like... or, you know, fill in the blank with a question you had about her. The only thing I knew before seeing her again was that she hated this one particular lullaby that you loved… and that you both originally were born with blonde hair and that yours turned brown over the years… I could only assume that hers had too.”

“But did it scare you?”, Morgan repeats. 

“Yes, when the understanding dawned on me that you knew, I was scared. Extremely,” Tony nods. “I was scared when I saw your mother again for the first time, before I even knew that you knew. I was scared that you finding out would break the trust you store in me. And, I was right. You definitely weren’t happy with me for keeping that information from you... rightfully so, too. I’m not saying that your feelings about it early on weren’t valid.”

“I know,” she nods. “Thank you for being honest, Dad.”

**———**

**[12.31.21**

**11:50 PM]**

**Pepper:**

She broke away from watching her daughters make a snowman together outside from her window while Tony watched from the back doorstep as she found her spot next to him with a cup of hot chocolate in her hands. Massachusetts had its first snowfall today.

“Can you believe it?”, Tony asks quietly.

Pepper hums as she sips upon her hot chocolate, “What?”

“In six minutes, Morgan’ll be thirteen… eight for Alayna,” Tony baffles. 

“Oh, yeah,” Pepper smiles, readjusting her grasp on the mug. “How on earth has it been that long? It’s hard to believe, life moves too fast.” The clock strikes 11:51 when Morgan puts the smallest snowball on top of the two previous ones. 

“Maguna, Lanie, it’s getting colder! Why don’t you two finish up and come inside with us?”, Tony calls over to them before lowering his voice and looking over at his fiancée. She now had bits of snow peeking out of her ginger hair. “It’s their first birthday together… you know, since their actual births.”

“Okay, Dad!”, Morgan calls over to him then before decorating the snowy creation’s face.

“I didn’t even think about that,” Pepper raises her eyebrows at the thought. “Wow.” She laughs under her breath. “Who would’ve thought what that new year would bring?”

“I’m just glad that didn’t last for forever,” he frowns slightly. 

“Me too,” Pepper murmurs before their daughters run over to them and into the house when the clock ticks 11:53. “Hot chocolate’s on the counter if you want some.” 

Once the girls take off their winter jackets and hats and find comfort on the couch with their hot chocolate, it’s 11:58.

“Happy birthday, my beautiful girls,” Pepper says, pushing a jewelry box in front of Morgan while Tony sets an identical box in front of Alayna.

“Happy birthday, kiddos,” Tony smiles. “We love you both so much.”

“Love you too!”, both of them say in a matter of seconds. 

They receive two identical charm bracelet bands that say ‘the best is yet to come’. The clasp was reminiscent of a single firework. Both bracelets had individual, unique charms that matched each daughter’s personality. Except for one in particular that was showcasing a visual of the phrase ‘two peas in a pod’.

“This is something we were always planning to do, but life took a detour for a while,” Pepper explains. 

“It’s so cute!”, Morgan exclaims, sliding it on her left wrist. 

“Thank you,” Alayna smiles. 

And then it hit… 12:01 AM, New Year’s Day. The ‘first’ birthday where their twins were together was over, starting a new year. Five months until Tony and Pepper remarried.

“Happy New Year,” Tony whispers to Pepper before she looks at him with a humorous smile and gives him a short and sweet kiss. 

“Happy New Year... We get married this year,” Pepper murmurs. “Love you.”

“Ew! Just because we were so heck bent on getting you two back together doesn’t mean we wanna see y’all kissing each other all the time,” Morgan jokingly says with a faux look of disgust. 

“You’re going to have to get used to it,” Tony lets out a genuine laugh in response to his daughter before pulling Pepper into a kiss again. He murmurs to Pepper. “Love you too, Pep. More than you know.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading and continued support! I really hope you enjoyed it. If you did, please leave kudos, comment, and share with your pepperony lovin’ friends! 
> 
> Hang out with me on my socials!  
> Twitter: aoskayla  
> Tumblr: akasharpiegirl


	15. It’s A Good Day For Marrying You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marriage.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last we left off, it was the most wonderful time of the year.

**[05.14.22**

**1:35 PM**

**Massachusetts]**

**Morgan:**

“Hey Uncle Hap,” Morgan says as her and her sister make it outside of the groom's suite, just under an hour before the ceremony. 

“Hello,” Happy responded as he stood in front of the closed door. “Does your mother know that you two ventured all the way over here?”

“No,” Alayna shakes her head with a smile on her face. 

“Don’t tell her. Please?”, Morgan jokingly pleads. 

“I won’t, you don’t have to ask,” Happy stifles a small laugh. “You two want to see your Dad, don’t you?”

Both girls nod their heads, confirming Happy’s guess. 

“I’ll see what I can do,” he nods before stepping inside the room, leaving the twins standing outside for a moment.

Happy opens the door about a minute later, “Stay as long as you want but I’d suggest that you make it quick… so your mom doesn’t freak out since she doesn’t know where you both went.”

“Thank you!”, Alayna is the one to say thank you before they step inside of the suite’s common area where their Dad was exiting a separate room.

“Oh my goodness, look at my beautiful girls!”, he exclaims when he sees them, holding out his arms for them. Both girls give him a hug and step away a moment later. “I missed you two so much! I’m still so sad that tradition kept me away from my baby girls for almost an entire day. How does that work?”

Morgan pushes her new glasses up on the bridge of her nose with her left pointer finger before resting her arm by her side and smiling at him, “Thank you. I missed you too. You look nice, Dad.”

“Well thank you, too!”, he laughs slightly. “How’re you liking the glasses, huh?”

“Don’t like ‘em,” Morgan shakes her head. “Makes me feel weird.”

“In that case, when you’re older, if you still hate them, you can try contacts,” Tony says. “But Mom and I wear glasses when we don’t have contacts in, though, and that doesn’t make us weird, does it?”

“I didn’t say it makes  _ me  _ weird,” Morgan disagrees. “I said they make me  _ feel _ weird.”

Tony nods before looking over at his youngest, who had been silent since her entrance, “Lanie, you good?”

Alayna’s eyes widened, “Uh, yeah. I’m just kind of shocked, you know? My family’s finally becoming whole again and I’ve been wishing for this since I was five. ...it’s just a lot to take in.”

“Well, I’m overjoyed that all of our wishes are coming true here real soon,” he smiles at her and Morgan before changing the subject. “Speaking of Mom, how is she? Does she know you two ventured over here to see me?”

“No, she doesn’t,” Morgan shakes her head.

“And she’s doing good! She just put on her dress,” Alayna says with a smile.

“Oh, has she now?”, Tony raises a brow.

“Just before we left, yeah,” Alayna nods. 

“I’ll counter offer your Mom. Triple your allowances next month if both of you tell me one little thing about your mother’s dress,” Tony begins to bribe.

“Nuh-uh, no deal,” Morgan is quick to say. 

“No deal?”, Tony blinks. “Why?”

“She’d know, Dad,” Alayna says.

“How would she know?”, Tony rebuts. 

“She just would,” Morgan says, folding her arms.

“How?”, Tony inquires.

“My Dad, who constantly busts me for lying, is asking  _ me  _ why my mother would know if I took your bribe?”, Morgan deadpans. “And, you’ve only got an hour till you see Mama. You can wait, can’t you?”

He stifles a laugh, “Yes, yes I can.” He walks over to the doorway to the exit of the suite. “You girls better start heading back on to the bridal suite before your Mom starts freaking out. Love you.”

“Love you, Dad,” Alayna says before giving him a small hug and walking out.

“Love you too, Dad,” Morgan says as she hugs him next. As she steps away and into the hallway, “While I can’t tell you anything more, I can assure you that Mom’s dress is absolutely beautiful and she’s even more so.”

“Oh, I don’t doubt that,” Tony smiles at his girls as they walk away before he shuts the door. 

  
  


**———**

**Tony:**

  
  


“I’m really proud of you, you know that?”, Maria says quietly as he walks with her down the aisle. 

“Yeah, I know,” Tony murmurs to her as they reach the seating. “Thank you.”

“Ti voglio bene,” she says to him before taking her seat.

“Love you too,” Tony says to her before taking his spot next to Happy, the officiant. 

His groomsmen came out next. There weren’t many compared to Pepper’s bridesmaids, but that was okay. Chris, Shawn, and Amanda’s husband Nick. Once they took their spots, Rhodey, Tony’s best man (just like the first time), walked to his.

Pepper’s bridesmaids: Alicia, Chris’ wife Ellie, and Shawn’s girlfriend Katie walked out to the opposite side. One after the other. Pepper’s matron of honor, Amanda, walked out with the junior bridesmaids: Morgan and Alayna. 

Tony pushed away his nerves when he saw his daughters, letting out a small laugh when Morgan deliberately attempted to make him laugh. 

Carter and Anna walked down together shortly after the twins made their way to their spots, as ring bearer and flower girl. Though, Anna’s job didn’t quite get fulfilled because she was looking at the people sitting in the seats. Still, two or three batches of petals fell to the floor with a swipe of her hand. Anna stood in front of her Mom and Carter stood in front of his dad.

Tony takes in a deep breath when the understanding hits him.  _ I’m about to see her. Oh my God. Wait, you’ve done this before. Why are you freaking out so much—  _

Pepper walks out with her mother and her stepdad just moments later and Tony feels his tears threatening to give way. He puts his hands behind his back as the trio make it past the very last row of seating and smiles at her. He can feel Rhodey’s hand pat on his shoulder for a brief moment as his best man murmurs, “I always knew you two would find your way back to each other. You got this, Tones.”

_ Oh my God, she’s stunning. Beautiful. Gorgeous. The dress… it looked so nice on her. The blue flower clip that just barely touched her bangs. The way she spoke to her parents with love and kindness… the way he could just barely hear her laugh when her stepdad said something. I love her, I really do. How did— _

“Tony, you okay?”, Pepper asks in a hushed tone once she makes it by his side, holding out her hands for his. He blinks, and a tear collects on his cheek. 

“Uh,” he mumbles, taking her hands in his. “Yeah. Just, um… lost in thought. That’s all.”

She hums, giving his hands a small squeeze of comfort. “I love you, you know that right?”

“I know… I love you too,” he murmurs back.

“Good afternoon everyone. We are here today, to witness the continuation of Virginia’s and Anthony’s love story… and to remember what has been and celebrate with the wonderful bride and groom, who are about to turn the page in their lives to the somewhat familiar, but new chapter of their lives that is about to start,” Happy says. “Marriage is a beautiful, but complicated thing. And sometimes, it takes a couple’s audacious twelve year old twin daughters accidentally meeting at a summer camp to realize—” Tony can see his daughters using their free hands to high-five each other. “—That a marriage is about togetherness, forgiveness, and the one promise that the bride and groom are reaffirming today… to never give up on what they have.”

It was quiet, until Happy spoke up again, “Virginia, Anthony, the vows you two are about to make are a way to symbolize your love and promise of commitment to each other. You two have self written vows, but have wished to keep them between you two. So, you may exchange now.”

Pepper hands him the crinkled paper and Tony hands her his. 

Both are short and sweet, but Tony lets out another batch of silent tears when he reads Pepper’s. Simple half-print-half-cursive stared back at him as he read through her vows that went through a highlight reel of their relationship, those events peppered in with metaphors and other nicely crafted words. He hadn’t realized that she had let a few tears escape herself until he looked up at her. Tony hands the paper to Rhodey for safe keeping, while Pepper gives the other paper to Amanda. Chris takes the rings from his son’s hold and hands them to Happy.

“Virginia and Anthony will now exchange the rings to symbolize their commitment. The wearing of such rings is an outward, visible sign that they have committed themselves to each other,” Happy says, handing Tony Pepper’s wedding ring. “Anthony, please take Virginia’s hand in yours and repeat these words.”

After Happy said the words, Tony repeated, “I give you this ring as a symbol of our love. For today, tomorrow, and for all the days to come. Wear it as a sign of what we have promised on this day and know that my love is always present… even when I am not.” He slides the diamond ring on her left ring finger. 

Pepper smiles at him as he does. Happy requests her to repeat the same, and she does: “I give you this ring as a symbol of our love. For today, tomorrow, and for all the days to come. Wear it as a sign of what we have promised on this day and know that my love is always present… even when I am not.” She slides the wedding band on Tony’s left ring finger. 

“Virginia and Anthony, you have professed your love in private by exchanging your vows and publicly symbolized your commitment with the exchanging of the rings. There is just one more question I must get you both to answer,” Happy starts. He looks at Pepper, “Virginia, do you take Anthony to be your husband, to live together in the agreement of marriage? Do you promise to love him, comfort him, honor and keep him… in sickness and in health… and forsaking all others, be faithful to him as long as you both shall live?”

“I do,“ Pepper answers.

“Anthony, do you take Virginia to be your wife, to live together in the agreement of marriage? Do you promise to love her, comfort her, honor and keep her... in sickness and in health… and forsaking all others, be faithful to her as long as you both shall live?”, Happy continued.

“I do,” Tony says, looking at Pepper through teary eyes. 

“By the power vested in me and through the state of Massachusetts, I pronounce you a married couple. You may reseal your love with a kiss,” Happy states.

They both wipe each other’s faces clear of tears befote they embrace. Tony’s left arm around her waist and his right arm was thrown into the air in celebration while Pepper’s arms were around his neck. The two kiss. 

The couple steps out of the embrace, but hold each other’s hand.

“And it is my privilege to present to you, Mr. Anthony and Virginia Potts-Stark,” Happy says with a smile. “And their twin daughters who had approved name changes today as well, Morgan Hope Potts-Stark and Alayna Joy Potts-Stark.”

——

The reception had been quite beautiful so far. 

And now, it was time for the  first (second) dance. 

“You sure you want to dance with me this time?”, Tony asks as they step toward each other.

“You’re my  _ husband _ , why wouldn’t I?”, she muses quietly. They hear the low cacophony of instrumental music merge into the first verse as the two join hands and begin to step together in time with the music.

_ We could leave the  _

_ Christmas lights up till January _

_ And this is our place _

_ We make the rules _

_ And there's a dazzling haze _

_ A mysterious way about you, dear _

_ Have I known you _

_ 20 seconds or 20 years? _

When the verse fades into the chorus, Tony mumbles to her: “I love you, you know. Always have.”

“I’ve always loved you, too,” Pepper says to him. “Don’t know how my brain let me wait so long to figure that out.”

He lets out a quiet laugh, “You and me both, my love.”

_ We could let our friends _

_ Crash in the living room _

_ This is our place _

_ We make the call _

_ And I'm highly suspicious  _

_ That everyone who _

_ Sees you wants you _

_ I've loved you three summers now _

_ Honey, but I want 'em all _

As the couple steps in time with the chorus, Tony spots both of his girls watching at the table. The looks of pure joy that they both shared. It made him so happy to see them reunited and happy. Morgan sniffles back tears before pushing her circle rims up on her face again. He looks back at Pepper. She gives him a content smile, before quickly wrapping her arms around his waist and laying her head on his shoulder. He readjusts, his arms now embracing her. The chorus is sung again.

_ Ladies and gentlemen _

_ Will you please stand? _

_ With every guitar string _

_ Scar on my hand _

_ I take this magnetic force _

_ Of a man to be my lover _

_ My heart's been borrowed _

_ And yours has been blue _

_ All's well that ends well _

_ To end up with you _

_ Swear to be overdramatic _

_ and true to my lover _

_ And you'll save all your _

_ Dirtiest jokes for me _

_ And at every table _

_ I'll save you a seat, lover _

When the end of the song begins to come, he sees his mother. A proud beam splayed on her face that could say a thousand words. 

_ Darling, you’re my lover _

Pepper met his eyes again as the song faded out, giving him a small nod. He led Pepper into a turn before dipping her. They leaned into each other’s company, his lips brushing hers as she kissed him back with a small smile. She squeezed his hand lovingly as she stood again.

Shortly after their dance ended, the speed of the songs picked up… one in question being Over and Over by Ben Rector. It wasn’t a song he’d listen to on the regular, but gosh, did it explain him and Pepper.

The rest of the night was simply magical. The dancing, the toasts, the cutting of the cake… simply magical.   


And now, their life was finally right side up again. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy crap. How is this the end?! I remember randomly deciding “Hey, I’m going to watch The Parent Trap” not even that long ago and then an AU was born out of that! How? Would you all like a mini series to explain what happened after the wedding? Maybe 5ish chapters? Let me know!
> 
> (Also idc if lover wasn’t the right song, I trashed three dance scenes with three different songs and this was the best one.) 
> 
> If you loved this series, please leave kudos, some comments, and share with your pepperony fam lovin friends! It would mean so much to me! 
> 
> Hang with me and stay updated on all of my other works on my socials!  
> Twitter: aoskayla   
> Tumblr: akasharpiegirl

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! This is a long fic series, so sit back and enjoy the ride if you like it! 
> 
> Update for 10/22:   
> I’ve had to cut back my writing time for college and so the remaining updates will be a bit sparse. There’s no set date/time for next update. Though, when I have finished writing, I will log back into my social medias (listed below) to give you all a heads up. Thank you for the understanding. 
> 
> Again, thank you for showing interest and reading! If you liked it, please drop kudos and comments!! Bookmarks and shares would be totally cool too. 
> 
> With that being said, if you want other fic updates and general insanity, please follow my Twitter (aoskayla) and tumblr (akasharpiegirl)!  
> Love y’all!


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